Page:Anthony Hope - The Dolly Dialogues.djvu/145

 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. Hilary.'

'As a matter of fact,' I observed, 'she didn't understand what I was doing at all.'

Dolly leant back. The relics of a frown still dwelt on her brow; presently, however, she