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 "What! But his mother"

"She didn't tell Mr. Rennie her son had proposed to me, Mr. Orbison."

"But"

"Oh, dear me!" she cried, and her laughter sounded gayly desperate. "I don't deny he wants to. I haven't let him."

"But that's the same thing, isn't it?"

"No, it isn't. If I'd let him go that far it would mean I intended him to, and I don't. I think that's clear enough on this point, Mr. Orbison. About the Bastoni, the honest truth is that I think they're terribly amusing—I like to dance with 'em and they speak the funniest English I ever heard. Arturo's nice, but he isn't funny—and they are! That's all there is to my mystery, Mr. Orbison."

He stared at her from under deeply frowning eyebrows; and she was amazed to see that he was serious; she had thought he would laugh with her. "You" he said. "It's astounding! It's like a" He stopped, frowned even more harshly, and then asked: "Would you care to hear what you remind me of?"

"I'm not sure," she replied. "You don't look as if it were anything very encouraging. But perhaps—since you've begun it"