"
"As I understand it then," said Ralph, "you wish me to push Mr.
Goodwood overboard after her. Do you know," he added, "that I've never
heard her mention his name?"
Henrietta gave a brilliant smile. "I'm delighted to hear that; it
proves how much she thinks of him."
Ralph appeared to allow that there was a good deal in this, and he
surrendered to thought while his companion watched him askance. "If
I should invite Mr. Goodwood," he finally said, "it would be to
quarrel with him."
"Don't do that; he'd prove the better man."
"You certainly are doing your best to make me hate him! I really
don't think I can ask him. I should be afraid of being rude to, him."
"It's just as you please," Henrietta returned. "I had no idea you
were in love with her yourself."
"Do you really believe that?" the young man asked with lifted
eyebrows.
"That's the most natural speech I've ever heard you make! Of
course I believe it," Miss Stackpole ingeniously said.
"Well," Ralph concluded, "to prove to you that you're wrong I'll
invite him. It must be of course as a friend of yours."
"It will not be as a friend of mine that he'll come; and it will not
be to prove to me that I'm wrong that you'll ask him- but to prove
it to yourself!"
These last words of Miss Stackpole's (on which the two presently
separated) contained an amount of truth which Ralph Touchett was
obliged to recognize; but it so far took the edge from too sharp a
recognition that, in spite of his suspecting it would be rather more
indiscreet to keep than to break his promise, he wrote Mr.
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