“Now he's breaking the child's heart——”
“There was never any engagement between them, I am sure of that,” I remarked.
“There wasn't. But I gave her to understand it was a settled affair—merely a question of Dale speaking. And, instead of speaking, he will have nothing to do with her, and spends all his time—and, I suppose, though I don't like to refer to it, all his money—in the society of this unmentionable woman.”
“Is she really so—so red as she is painted?” I asked.
“She isn't painted at all. That's where her artful and deceitful devilry comes in——”
“I suppose Dale,” said I, “declares her to be an angel of light and purity?”
“An angel on horseback! Whoever heard of such a thing?”
“It's the name of a rather fiery savoury,” said I.
“In a circus!” she continued.
“Well,” said I, “the ring of a circus is not essentially one of the circles in Dante's Inferno.”