The Gay Lord Quex - LightNovelsOnl.com
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SOPHY.
I'll thank you to be less familiar. Let me out.
QUEX.
Not I.
SOPHY.
You let me out directly.
QUEX.
[_Pointing a finger at her._] You'll gain nothing by raging, my good girl. Ha! now you appreciate the curiously awkward position in which you have placed yourself.
SOPHY.
I've placed myself in no--
QUEX.
Oh, come, come! Taking me at my blackest, I'm not quite the kind of man that a young woman who prides herself upon her respectability desires to be mixed up with in this fas.h.i.+on.
SOPHY.
Mixed up with!
QUEX.
Well--[_stretching out his arms_] here we are, you know.
SOPHY.
Here we are!
QUEX.
You and I, dear Sophy. [_Putting his leg over the arm of his chair._]
Now just sit down--
SOPHY.
I sha'n't.
QUEX.
While I picture to you what will happen in the morning.
SOPHY.
In the morning?
QUEX.
In a few hours' time. In the first place, you will be called in your room. You won't be there.
SOPHY.
Won't I!
QUEX.
No. You won't be there. A little later my man will come to _my_ room. I sha'n't be there. At about the same hour, her Grace will require your attendance. Where will _you_ be? She will then, naturally, desire to return to her own apartments. You are intelligent enough, I fancy, to imagine the rest. [_After a brief pause, she breaks into a peal of soft, derisive laughter._] I am deeply flattered by your enjoyment of the prospect.
SOPHY.
Ha, ha, ha! why, you must take me for a fool!
QUEX.
Why?
SOPHY.
Why, can't you see that our being found together like this, here or anywhere, would do for _you_ as well as for me?
QUEX.
[_Rising._] Of course I see it. [_Advancing to her._] But, my dear Sophy, _I_ am already done for. _You_ provide for that. And so, if I have to part with my last shred of character, I will lose it in a.s.sociation with a woman of your cla.s.s rather than with a lady whom I, with the rest of the world, hold in the highest esteem.
SOPHY.
[_After a pause._] Ho! oh, indeed?
QUEX.
Yes. Yes, indeed.
SOPHY.
[_With a shade less confidence._] Ha, ha! if your lords.h.i.+p thinks to frighten me, you've got hold of the wrong customer. Ha, ha, ha! two or three things you haven't reckoned for, I can a.s.sure you. Here's one--I told Miss Muriel exactly what I heard, between you and your d.u.c.h.ess, in the garden this evening.
QUEX.
[_Grinding his teeth._] You did! [_Involuntarily making a threatening movement towards her._] You did, you--!
SOPHY.
