Davenant regarded her in amazement.
"Why, Ernestine," he exclaimed, "are you taking stock of your good looks ?" "Precisely what I am doing," she answered laughing.

"At that moment I was wondering whether I possessed any." "If you will allow me," he said, "to take the place of the mirror, I think that I could give you any assurances you required." She shook her head.
"You might be more flattering," she said, "but you would be less faithful." He remained standing upon the hearthrug.

Ernestine returned to the mirror.
"May I know," he asked, "for whose sake is this sudden anxiety about your appearance ?" She turned away and sat in a low chair, her hands clasped behind her head, her eyes fixed upon vacancy.
"I have been wondering," she said, "whether if I set myself to it as to a task I could make a man for a moment forget himself--did I say forget ?--I mean betray!" "If I were that man," he remarked smiling, "I will answer for it that you could." "You! But then you are only a boy, you have nothing to conceal, and you are partial to me, aren't you?
No, the man whom I want to influence is a very different sort of person.

It is Scarlett Trent." He frowned heavily.

"A boor," he said.