"You are a brave woman," he said, "or you would have been more careful.

Of course you knew that my mother and sister were not at home ?" She smiled languidly.

"And why 'of course' ?" "I do not know that; only I know that I think so; and I also think that my brother Frank's worst misfortune did not occur when Miss Julia Sherwood trafficked without compunction in his happiness." "Don't be oracular, my dear Richard Armour," she replied.

"You are trying, really.

This seems almost melodramatic; and melodrama is bad enough at Drury Lane." "You are not a good friend even to yourself," he answered.
"What a discoverer you are! And how much in earnest! Do come back to the world, Mr.Armour; you would be a relief, a new sensation." "I fancy I shall come back, if only to see the 'engineer hoist with his own'-- torpedo." He paused before the last word to give it point, for her husband's father had made his money out of torpedoes.