"Oh, you can't go by photographs. He has been here."
"What! Sugarman had the impudence to bring him!"
Kitty flushed slightly. "No, he called alone--this afternoon, just
before you."
"What impertinence! A brazen commercial courtship! You wouldn't
receive him, of course."
"Oh, well, I thought it would be fun just to look at him," said Kitty
uneasily. "A commercial courtship, as you express it, is not
unamusing."
"I don't see anything amusing in it--it's an outrage."
"I told you you had no sense of humour. I find it comic to be loved
before first sight by a man who has no _h_'s, but only _l_'s, _s_'s,
and _d_'s."
"Sugarman says he did see you before loving you--noticed you before he
went to the Cape. But you must have been a little girl then."
"He didn't tell me that--that would have been even more romantic. He
only said he fell in love with my photograph, as paraded by Sugarman."
"Why, where should Sugarman get--"
"You never know what mother's been up to," interrupted Kitty dryly.
"Much more likely father."
"What's the odds? Do have another piece of cake."
"No, thank you. But what did you say to the man?"
"The same as you. Don't stare so, you stupid dear. I said, No, thank
you."
"That I knew. Of course you couldn't possibly marry a bloated creature
from the Cape. I meant, in what terms did you put him in his place?"
"Oh, really," said Kitty, laughing, but without her recent merriment.
"This is too prejudiced. I can't admit that mere residence in the Cape
is a disqualification."
"Oh, yes, it is. Why do they go there? Only to make money. A person
whose one idea in life is money can't be a nice person."
"But money isn't his one idea--now his one idea is matrimony. That is
a joke. You ought to laugh."
"It makes me cry to think that some nice girl may be driven into
marrying him just for his money."
"Poor man! So because of his money he is to be prevented from having a
nice wife."
Salvina was taken aback by this obverse view.
"How is he ever to improve?" asked Kitty, pursuing her advantage.
"Yes, that's true," Salvina admitted. "The best thing would be if some
nice girl could _fall in love_ with him. But that doesn't make his
methods less insulting. I wish all these Shadchans could be
slaughtered off."
"What a savage little chit! They often make as good marriages as are
made in heaven."
"Don't tease. You know you think as I do."
Salvina took an affectionate leave of her sister, and walked down the
soft staircase, confused but cheerful. The boy in buttons let her out.
To do so he hurriedly put down the infant of the house who was riding
on his shoulders. Such a touch of humanity in a row of buttons gave
Salvina a new insight and a suspicion that even the powdered footman
who brought the tea might have an emotion behind his gorgeous
waistcoat. But the crowds fighting for the omnibuses that fine Sunday
afternoon depressed her again. All the seats outside were packed, and
it was only after standing a long time on the pavement that she
squeezed her way into an inside seat. The stuffiness and jolting made
her feel sick and dizzy. By a happy accident her fingers encountered
the bottle of smelling-salts in her pocket, and, as she pulled it out
eagerly, she remembered it had been intended for Kitty.