Now, at any rate, you have no time to lose, and when I return you must immediately come to me." All this, to Clifford's apprehension, was a great mixture--his beginning young, Eugenia's return to Europe, his being introduced to her charming little circle.

What was he to begin, and what was her little circle?
His ideas about her marriage had a good deal of vagueness; but they were in so far definite as that he felt it to be a matter not to be freely mentioned.

He sat and looked all round the room; he supposed she was alluding in some way to her marriage.
"Oh, I don't want to go to Germany," he said; it seemed to him the most convenient thing to say.
She looked at him a while, smiling with her lips, but not with her eyes.
"You have scruples ?" she asked.
"Scruples ?" said Clifford.
"You young people, here, are very singular; one does n't know where to expect you.

When you are not extremely improper you are so terribly proper.

I dare say you think that, owing to my irregular marriage, I live with loose people.