Page:Anthony Hope - The Dolly Dialogues.djvu/123

 'I've always thought it kind of you never to speak of it,' said she.

'It is best forgotten,' said I, smiling.

'We should have said the same about anybody,' protested Dolly.

'Certainly. We were only trying to be smart,' said I.

'And it was horribly unjust.'

'I quite agree with you, Lady Mickleham.'

'Besides, I didn't know anything about him then. He had only arrived that day, you see.'

'Really we were not to blame,' I urged.

'Oh, but doesn't it seem funny?'

'A strange whirligig, no doubt,' I mused.

There was a pause. Then the faintest of smiles appeared on Dolly's face.

'He shouldn't have worn such clothes,' she said, as though in self-defence. 'Anybody would have looked absurd in them.'

'It was all the clothes,' I agreed. 'Besides, when a man doesn't know a place, he always moons about and looks'

'Yes. Rather awkward, doesn't he, Mr. Carter?'

'And the mere fact of his looking at you'

'At us, please.'

'Is nothing, although we made a grievance of it at the time.'

'That was very absurd of you,' said Dolly.

'It was certainly unreasonable of us,' said I.

'We ought to have known he was a gentleman.'

'But we scouted the idea of it,' said I.