He
thought we were still up about the place. My father has always told him
to make this his home, and not to go to the tavern. They are friends
politically, in many ways, as you know."
"The light then was that of some servant?"
"Certainly it was. I know nothing of it. It was an accident, and yet you
blame me as though--why, it was all accident that you met Captain Orme.
Tell me, Jack, did you quarrel? What did he tell you?"
"Many things. He is no fit man for you to know, nor for any woman."
"Do I not know that? I will never see him again."
"No, he will never come back here again, that is fairly sure. He has
promised that; and he asked me to promise one thing, by the way."
"What was that?"
"To keep my promise with you. He asked me to marry you! Why?"
Infinite wit of woman! What chance have we men against such weapons? It
was coquetry she forced to her face, and nothing else, when she
answered: "So, then, he was hard hit, after all! I did not know that.
How tender of him, to wish me married to another than himself! The
conceit of you men is something wondrous."
"Mr. Orme was so kind as to inform me that I was a gentleman, and
likewise a very great ass.
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