"Oh, yes; but do you fancy that they're doing it for love of the profession or for--for--any other reason?"
"I don't quite see what you mean, Lord Lullworth."
"It's a bit rough to be frank with a girl; and it's rarely that a chap has to say just what he means, but there are times..."
He spoke apologetically and paused, allowing his smile to rest upon her for a moment. It was the smile of a man who hopes he hasn't gone too far, and trusts to get out of an untenable position by the aid of a temporising smile.
She returned his smile quite pleasantly. She knew that the sentences over the utterance of which men hesitate are invariably the most interesting that they have to speak.
"What is it?" she asked. "Everybody speaks frankly to me: they don't treat me as they do other girls, you know."
"It's a dangerous experiment talking frankly to a girl," said he. "But if it comes to that, it's not so dangerous an experiment as a girl talking frankly to a man--leading him to do things that he hasn't a mind to do--may be that he hates doing."
"I was born in an atmosphere of experiments," said she. "I delight in having dealings with new forces, and making out their respective coefficients of energy."
"Oh; then you don't happen to think that these chaps who were here just now are in love with you? That's frank enough, isn't it?"
Her face had become roseate, but she was not angry. Whatever she may have been she was sufficiently like other girls to be able to refrain from getting angry at the suggestion that four young men were in love with her at the same time.
"It's nonsense enough," she said. "You have quite misunderstood the situation, Lord Lullworth. I like Guy Overton and all the others greatly, and I hope they like me. But they are no more in love with me than I am in love with them."
"Do you fancy that a chap allows himself to be led about by a girl all for the fun of the thing?" he asked.
"Why should a man think it ridiculous for a woman to be his friend and to give him the advice of a friend--the advice that he would welcome if it were to come from a brother?" she enquired.
"I don't know why, but I know that he does," said Lord Lullworth. "Anyhow, you don't think of any of the chaps who were here as a lover?"