Page:Anthony Hope - The Dolly Dialogues.djvu/19



other day I paid a call on Miss Dolly Foster for the purpose of presenting to her my small offering on the occasion of her marriage to Lord Mickleham. It was a pretty little bit of jewellery—a pearl heart, broken (rubies played the part of blood) and held together by a gold pin, set with diamonds, the whole surmounted by an earl's coronet. I had taken some trouble about it, and I was grateful when Miss Dolly asked me to explain the symbolism.

'It is my heart,' I observed. 'The fracture is of your making: the pin'

Here Miss Dolly interrupted: to tell the truth I was not sorry, for I was fairly gravelled for the meaning of the pin.

'What nonsense, Mr. Carter!' said she; 'but it's awfully pretty. Thanks, so very, very much. Aren't relations funny people?'

'If you wish to change the subject, pray do,' said I. 'I'll change anything except my affections.'

'Look here,' she pursued, holding out a bundle 7