XIX
The next time Colville came he found himself alone with Imogene, who asked him what he had been doing all day.
"Oh, living along till evening. What have you?"
She did not answer at once, nor praise his speech for the devotion implied in it. After a while she said: "Do you believe in courses of reading? Mr. Morton has taken up a course of reading in Italian poetry. He intends to master it."
"Does he?"
"Yes. Do you think something of the kind would be good for me?"
"Oh, if you thirst for conquest. But I should prefer to rest on my laurels if I were you."
Imogene did not smile. "Mr. Morton thinks I should enjoy a course of Kingsley. He says he's very earnest."
"Oh, immensely. But aren't you earnest enough already, my dear?"