"There, Mr Lorton! I have kept them ever since." "Mr Lorton!" I repeated, "who is he?
I don't know him." "Well, `Frank,' then--will that please you better, you tiresome thing ?" "You know you promised," I said, apologetically.
"Did I ?" she asked, with charming naivete.
"Why, have you forgotten that night already ?" I said, in a melancholy tone.
"Don't be so lugubrious," she said.

"You have to amuse me.

You mustn't remember all my promises." "Are they so unsubstantial ?" I asked.
"No, they're not, sir!" she said, stamping her foot in affected anger.
"But what do you say to my keeping your violets so long, Frank ?" "What do I say ?" I repeated after her, looking my delight into her eyes; when, a frantic chord, struck deep down in the bass by Mrs Clyde, marking the finish of some piece of Wagner's, recalled us both to every- day life.
As nobody else had yet arrived, Min challenged me to a game of chess.
I allowed her to win the first game easily.
She pouted, saying that she supposed I thought it below my dignity to put forth my best energies in playing against a lady! Thereupon, I _did_ exert myself; but, she was just as provokingly dissatisfied.
I took her queen.

She protested it was unfair.
I offered to restore it to her; she would not have it at any price;--she wished me to play the game, she said, just as if I were playing with a man.
I checkmated her.

She got up in a pet, saying that chess was a nasty, stupid, tiresome thing, and that she would not play it any longer.
O, the contrariness of feminine nature! Other people now began to drop in; and it was _my_ turn to get put out.
I heard it was Min's birthday, which I had not known before.