Part 30 (1/2)
”Oh! you rather enjoyed it, did you?” p.r.i.c.king up her ears. ”I thought you never could be bothered to enjoy anything.”
”I can't say I put myself out much over this.”
”Are there any nice girls there?”
”Yes.”
”Many?”
”Two.”
”So ho!” impressively. ”Yet I didn't think country b.u.mpkins were much in your line.”
”One of them is as good-looking as you.”
”Is she dark?” with a little pout.
”No, fair.”
”Umph--Insipid?”
”No, good.”
”Good!” she echoed in a tone of laughing derision. ”How amusing! Have you really been able to find entertainment in a goody-goody girl?”
”I didn't say 'goody-goody.'”
”Well, you implied it, and that's the same thing.”
”Not in this case.”
”And I say it is. We'll change the subject. Goody-goody girls don't interest me in the least. What's the other like?”
”Like you.”
”Like me!”--in surprise. ”Then she's pretty, too?”
”No. On the whole she is plain.”
”You wretch! I protest she is not in the least like me!”
”And I tell you she is.”
”But how?”
”In manner and ways.”
”My dear Lawrence, you are talking nonsense. Do you mean to tell me that after my Parisian education, and presentation in London, and year of travel, and the gayeties of India, I resemble a little, countrified Irish girl?”
”I said that she resembled you, which is quite a different thing.”