Her ladyship eyed him speculatively. "Well?" she demanded. Philip laughed bitterly. "Oh, I have been rebuffed! Do I conceal it so admirably?" "No, you do not," said her ladyship. "You must have played your cards monstrously badly. Trust a man." "Oh, no! Tis merely that your niece does not love me." "Fiddle! Don't tell me that. D'you think I'm a fool, Philip?" "She objects, madam, to my--tarnished reputation. She was quite final." "You thought she was quite final. Now, don't be stately, child! What happened?" "I asked her to marry me--and she flung my wretched Paris _affaires_ in my face." "Of course, you denied everything?" "No, I did not. How could I? There was a certain measure of tr--" Lady Malmerstoke leaned back disgustedly. "God preserve me from young men! You admitted it?" "No--that is, I was frank with her." "Great heavens, Philip! Frank with a woman? God help you, then! And what next? Did you tell Cleone not to be a fool? Did you insist that she should listen to you?" "How could I? She--" "You didn't. You walked off when you should have mastered her. I'll wager my best necklet she was waiting for you to assert yourself. And now she's probably miserable. Serve her right, and you too." "But, Lady Malmerstoke--" "Not but what I don't sympathise with the child," continued her ladyship inexorably. "Of course, she is a fool, but so are all girls. A woman of my age don't inquire too closely into a man's past--we've learned wisdom. Cleone knows that you have trifled with a dozen other women. Bless you, she don't think the worse of you for that!" "She does! She said--" "For goodness' sake, don't try to tell me what she said, Philip! What's that to do with it?" "But you don't understand! Cleone said--" "So she may have. That does not mean that she meant it, does it?" asked her ladyship in great scorn. "_Mais_--" "Don't start talking French at me, child, for I can't bear it! You should know by now that no woman means what she says when it's to a man." "Oh, stop, stop! Lady Malmerstoke, you don't understand! Cleone does think the worse of me for those intrigues! She is very angry!" "Of course she is. What do you expect?" Philip clasped his head. "_Mais, voyons!_ Just now you said that she does _not_ think the worse of me for it!" "Who said she did? Can't one think two things at the same time?" "But surely not two such--such contradictory things! I have never done so in my life!" "You! You're only a man! You've not our gifts! I can tell you!" My lady spread out her fan. "Why, a woman can think of a hundred different things at once, all of them contradictory!" She nodded at him complacently. "It's ridiculous! It's impossible! Are women's brains so--so incoherent?" "Most of 'em," answered her ladyship. "They jump, you see." "Jump?" Philip was thoroughly bewildered.