"It is very rude to repeat my words so! You oughtn't! Yes, keep an establishment!"
"I beg your pardon, Mademoiselle."
"No, it is I who am rude."
"Not at all,--but mysterious. I am quite in the dark concerning you."
"Concerning me?"
"Ah, Miss Marguerite, it is my turn now."
"Oh! It must be----This is your mystery, n'est ce pas? Mamma was my grandmamma. My own mother was far too young when mamma gave her in marriage; and, to make amends, mamma adopted me and left me her name and her fortune. So that I am very wealthy. And now shall I keep an establishment?"
"I should think not," said Mr. Raleigh, with a smile.
"Do you know, you constantly reassure me? Home grows less and less a bugbear when you speak of it. How strange! It seems as if I had known you a year, instead of a week."
"It would probably take that period of time to make us as well acquainted under other circumstances."