"
"It would be delightful, but out of the question, I am afraid: Mrs.
Liddell has such severe ideas, and I dare not offend her."
"Why need she know anything about it? Say--oh, anything--that you are
going with the Burnetts: they have gone to the Italian lakes, but I
don't suppose she knows."
The temptation was great, but the little widow was no fool in some ways.
She saw her way to make something of an impression on her worldly
admirer.
"No, Colonel Ormonde," she said, shaking her head, while she permitted
the "suspicious moisture" to gather in her eyes. "It would indeed be a
treat to a poor little recluse like me, but though there is not a bit of
harm in it, or you would not ask me, I am sure, I must not offend my
mother-in-law; and though Heaven knows I am not straight-laced, I never
will tell stories or act deceitfully if I can help it; that is my only
strong point, which has to make up for a thousand weak ones."
Colonel Ormonde looked at her with amazement; her greatest charm to men
such as he was her dolliness, and this was a new departure.
"Well," he said, in his most insinuating tones, "I thought you might
have granted so much to an old friend and faithful admirer like myself.
There is no great harm in my little plan.
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