“What about him?” asked Carrissima, at once on her guard.

“The fact is,” Bridget explained, “I ought to have drawn in and lived on my hundred pounds a year, or whatever it was, only I hadn’t got it in me.  I formed a different plan.  I thought I would take London by storm—­no less!  I had been flattered and spoiled in Paris, and goodness knows what ridiculous ideas I came away with.  Well, I was left alone with no one to speak to till I recognized Mark at the Old Masters’, and dropped my purse so that he might pick it up and give me an excuse to claim acquaintance.  They say that open confession is good for the soul!  Oh dear, mine ought to be in such splendid condition.”

“Why should you inflict the penance on yourself to-day?” suggested Carrissima.

“I liked Mark Driver,” said Bridget, “and I thought he liked me—­in a rather different way.  Until he went to Yorkshire, I believed he would ask me to marry him.  I had tried to make him!  After his return, that evening he took me to Belloni’s, I tried my hardest and wondered why I failed till I saw you.”

“I don’t see what I can possibly have to do with it,” murmured Carrissima.

“Oh, you were very discreet—­very clever!  But it wasn’t long before I saw you would give your heart for Mark——­”

“You have not the least right to say that!” exclaimed Carrissima.

“Of course I haven’t,” Bridget admitted.  “I am taking the most abominable liberty.  Well, I was going to tell you that when Colonel Faversham asked me to marry him, I temporized until Mark’s return from Paris; then I knew for certain there was nothing to be hoped for from him.  I am giving myself away pretty liberally,” said Bridget, “but this is what I want to make you understand.  Though I deliberately devoted myself to captivate Mark, he never yielded—­till just that once!  Odd, that I who feel absolutely indifferent about him, should read his character so much more correctly than you who love him.  Oh, please,” entreated Bridget, “don’t look so fierce, because if I had not been certain, there would have been no object in asking you to come here this morning.”

“I cannot see one in—­in any case!” said Carrissima.

“Oh, I hope there is,” answered Bridget.  “I know it sounds a wee bit inconsistent, because, of course, Mark was wrong, and at the time I felt immensely angry with him.  But he wasn’t a thousandth part so wrong as you imagined, and, Carrissima! there are very few men of his age whom you or I couldn’t tempt if we gave our minds to it.”

“I am not in the least likely to make the experiment,” exclaimed Carrissima.

“No, but, you see, I did!  It’s true nothing could have been further from my thoughts or my wishes on the afternoon you dropped the roses.  But how was Mark to know that?  And at other times I had done my very best to lead him on, and I failed only because of you!  Imagine what it meant when he heard from Jimmy that the woman he loved, whom he had intended to ask to be his wife——­”