‘But you will not refuse to listen to me, Nina?’ ‘I will read you if you write to me,’ and with a wave of good-bye she slowly left the room. ‘She is my master, even at my own game,’ said Walpole, as he sat down, and rested his head between his hands. ‘Still she is mistaken: I can write just as vaguely as I can speak, and if I could not, it would have cost me my freedom this many a day. With such a woman one might venture high, but Heaven help him when he ceased to climb the mountain!’ CHAPTER XLIX A CUP OP TEA It was so rare an event of late for Nina to seek her cousin in her own room, that Kate was somewhat surprised to see Nina enter with all her old ease of manner, and flinging away her hat carelessly, say, ‘Let me have a cup of tea, dearest, for I want to have a clear head and a calm mind for at least the next half-hour.’ ‘It is almost time to dress for dinner, especially for you, Nina, who make a careful toilet.’ ‘Perhaps I shall make less to-day, perhaps not go down to dinner at all. Do you know, child, I have every reason for agitation, and maiden bashfulness besides? Do you know I have had a proposal--a proposal in all form--from--but you shall guess whom. ‘Mr. O’Shea, of course.’ ‘No, not Mr. O’Shea, though I am almost prepared for such a step on his part--nor from your brother Dick, who has been falling in and out of love with me for the last three months or more. My present conquest is the supremely arrogant, but now condescending, Mr. Walpole, who, for reasons of state and exigencies of party, has been led to believe that a pretty wife, with a certain amount of natural astuteness, might advance his interests, and tend to his promotion in public life; and with his old instincts as a gambler, he is actually ready to risk his fortunes on a single card, and I, the portionless Greek girl, with about the same advantages of family as of fortune--I am to be that queen of trumps on which he stands to win. And now, darling, the cup of tea, the cup of tea, if you want to hear more.’ While Kate was busy arranging the cups of a little tea-service that did duty in her dressing-room, Nina walked impatiently to and fro, talking with rapidity all the time. ‘The man is a greater fool than I thought him, and mistakes his native weakness of mind for originality. If you had heard the imbecile nonsense he talked to me for political shrewdness, and when he had shown me what a very poor creature he was, he made me the offer of himself! This was so far honest and above-board. It was saying in so many words, “You see, I am a bankrupt.” Now, I don’t like bankrupts, either of mind or money. Could he not have seen that he who seeks my favour must sue in another fashion?’ ‘And so you refused him?’ said Kate, as she poured out her tea.