'You are quite certain?' he said emphatically.
'Quite,' she faltered; 'if I could for certain buy the earrings
afterwards.'
Knight, somewhat blamably, keenly enjoyed sparring with the
palpitating mobile creature, whose excitable nature made any such
thing a species of cruelty.
He looked at her rather oddly, and said, 'Fie!'
'Forgive me,' she said, laughing a little, a little frightened,
and blushing very deeply.
'Ah, Miss Elfie, why didn't you say at first, as any firm woman
would have said, I am as bad as she, and shall choose the same?'
'I don't know,' said Elfride wofully, and with a distressful
smile.
'I thought you were exceptionally musical?'
'So I am, I think. But the test is so severe--quite painful.'
'I don't understand.'
'Music doesn't do any real good, or rather----'
'That IS a thing to say, Miss Swancourt! Why, what----'
'You don't understand! you don't understand!'
'Why, what conceivable use is there in jimcrack jewellery?'
'No, no, no, no!' she cried petulantly; 'I didn't mean what you
think. I like the music best, only I like----'
'Earrings better--own it!' he said in a teasing tone. 'Well, I
think I should have had the moral courage to own it at once,
without pretending to an elevation I could not reach.'
Like the French soldiery, Elfride was not brave when on the
defensive. So it was almost with tears in her eyes that she
answered desperately:
'My meaning is, that I like earrings best just now, because I lost
one of my prettiest pair last year, and papa said he would not buy
any more, or allow me to myself, because I was careless; and now I
wish I had some like them--that's what my meaning is--indeed it
is, Mr.
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