Carr. "On the face of things, I should say your love had been transferred
to her."
"Indeed it hadn't. Next to Anne, she's the most charming girl I know;
that's all. Between the two it will be awful work for me."
"So I should think," returned Mr. Carr. "The ass between two bundles of
hay was nothing to it."
"He was not an ass at all, compared with what I am," assented Val,
gloomily.
"Well, if a man behaves like an ass--"
"Don't moralize," interrupted Hartledon; "but rather advise me how to get
out of my dilemma. The morning's drawing on, and I have promised to ride
with Maude."
"You had better ride alone. All the advice I can give you is to draw back
by degrees, and so let the flirtation subside. If there is no actual
entanglement--"
"Stop a bit, Carr; I had not come to it," interrupted Lord Hartledon, who
in point of fact had been holding back what he called the climax, in his
usual vacillating manner. "One ill-starred day, when it was pouring cats
and dogs, and I could not get out, I challenged Maude to a game at
billiards. Maude lost. I said she should pay me, and put my arm round her
waist and snatched a kiss. Just at that moment in came the dowager, who I
believe must have been listening--"
"Not improbably," interrupted Mr. Carr, significantly.
"'Oh, you two dear turtle-doves,' cried she, 'Hartledon, you have made me
so happy! I have seen for some weeks what you were thinking of.
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