you please to imagine I am doing now?"

"There is no imagination in this--that you are behaving to Eppy as no
man ought except he meant to marry her."

"How do you know I do not mean to marry her?"

"Do you mean to marry her, my lord?"

"What right have you to ask?"

"At least I live under the same roof with you both."

"What if she knows I do not intend to marry her?"

"My duty is equally plain: I am the friend of her only relatives. If I
did not do my best for the poor girl, I dared not look my Master in the
face!--Where is your honour, my lord?"

"I never told her I would marry her."

"I never supposed you had."

"Well, what then?"

"I repeat, such attentions as yours must naturally be supposed by any
innocent girl to mean marriage."

"Bah! she is not such a fool!"

"I fear she is fool enough not to know to what they must then point!"

"They point to nothing."

"Then you take advantage of her innocence to amuse yourself with her."

"What if she be not quite so innocent as you would have her."

"My lord, you are a scoundrel."

For one moment Forgue seemed to wrestle with an all but uncontrollable
fury; the next he laughed--but it was not a nice laugh.

"Come now," he said, "I'm glad I've put you in a rage! I've got over
mine. I'll tell you the whole truth: there is nothing between me and
the girl--nothing whatever, I give you my word, except an innocent
flirtation. Ask herself."

"My lord," said Donal, "I believe what you mean me to understand. I
thought nothing worse of it myself."

"Then why the devil kick up such an infernal shindy about it?"

"For these reasons, my lord:--"

"Oh, come! don't be long-winded."

"You must hear me."

"Go on."

"I will suppose she does not imagine you mean to marry her."

"She can't!"

"Why not?"

"She's not a fool, and she can't imagine me such an idiot!"

"But may she not suppose you love her?"

He tried to laugh.

"You have never told her so?--never said or done anything to make her
think so?"

"Oh, well! she may think so--after a sort of a fashion!"

"Would she speak to you again if she heard you talking so of the love
you give her?"

"You know as well as I do the word has many meanings?"

"And which is she likely to take? That which is confessedly false and
worth nothing?"

"She may take which she pleases, and drop it when she pleases."

"But now, does she not take your words of love for more than they are
worth?"

"She s