Page:Anthony Hope - The Dolly Dialogues.djvu/17

 you know, and that I'd led him on, and that I was—well, he was very rude indeed. And he went on writing me letters like that for a whole year! It made me quite uncomfortable.'

'But he didn't go back to short trousers and a fiddle, did he?' I asked anxiously.

'Oh, no. But he forgot all he owed me, and he told me that his heart was dead, and that he should never love anyone again.'

'But he's going to marry that girl.'

'Oh, he doesn't care about her,' said Miss Dolly reassuringly. 'It's the money, you know. He hadn't a farthing of his own. Now he'll be set up for life.'

'And it's all due to you!' said I admiringly.

'Well, it is really.'

'I don't call her such a bad-looking girl though.' (I hadn't seen her face.)

'Mr. Carter! She's hideous!'

I dropped that subject.

'And now,' said Miss Dolly again, 'he cuts me dead!'

'It is the height of ingratitude. Why, to love you was a liberal education!'

'Yes, wasn't it? How nicely you put that. "A liberal education!" I shall tell Archie.' (Archie is Lord Mickleham.)

'What, about Phil Meadows?'

'Goodness me, no, Mr. Carter. Just what you said, you know.'

'But why not tell Mickleham about Phil Meadows?' I urged. 'It's all to your credit, you know.'