Page:Maud Howe - A Newport Aquarelle.djvu/92

 I see I am boring you already, and I have driven your English friend away from your side in terror and amaze."

"And why should you assume that you are boring me, Mr. Saltonstall? Do you think me incapable of following your conversation?"

"Not for an instant, Miss Carleton; it is not that you could not think, and think intelligently, upon this subject, or any other that I could talk to you about—only—I do not think, to speak frankly, that it interests you."

"Then why should I have begun by speaking of it?"

"Your natural goodness of heart prompted you to try to put me at my ease."

"You have known me long enough to know that I have n't any natural goodness of heart."

"Politeness, then. You will acknowledge that you have that quality to an uncommon degree?"