"
"Oh, you thought that?" said Dolly, smiling again.
"I must confess it," said I. "The fault, I know, would be mine."
"I'm sure of that," said Dolly.
"But the fact is that I can't exist in too high altitudes. The
rarefaction of the moral atmosphere--"
"Please don't use all those long words."
"Well, then, to put it plainly," said I, with a pleasant smile,
"I felt all the time that Mrs. Hilary would be too good for me."
It is not very often that it falls to my humble lot to startle
Lady Mickleham out of her composure. But at this point she sat up
quite straight in her chair; her cheek flushed, and her eyelids
ceased to droop in indolent insouciance.
"Mrs. Hilary!" she said. "What has Mrs. Hilary--?
"I really thought you understood," said I, "the object of my
experiment."
Dolly glanced at me. I believe that my expression was absolutely
innocent--and I am, of course sure that hers expressed mere
surprise.
"I thought," she said, after a pause, "that you were thinking of
Nellie Phaeton."
"Oh, I see," cried I smiling. "A natural mistake, to be sure."
"She thought so too," pursued Dolly, biting her lip.
"Did she though?"
"And I'm sure she'd be quite annoyed if she thought you were
thinking of Mrs.
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