It was some time before either spoke an atom of what was
uppermost in her mind. They each doled out a hundred sentences that
missed the mind and mingled readily with the atmosphere, being, in fact,
mere preliminary and idle air. So two deer, in duel, go about and about,
and even affect to look another way, till they are ripe for collision.
There be writers would give the reader all the preliminary puffs of
articulated wind, and everybody would say, "How clever! That is just the
way girls really talk." But I leave the glory of photographing nullities
to the geniuses of the age, and run to the first words which could,
without impiety, be called dialogue.
"Don't you think his conduct a little mysterious?" said Zoe, _mal 'a
propos_ of anything that had been said hitherto.
"Well, yes; rather," said Fanny, with marked carelessness.
"First, a sick friend; then a bleeding at the nose; and now he won't
drive to the lake with us. Arrears of correspondence? Pooh!"
Now, Fanny's suspicions were deeper than Zoe's; she had observed Severne
keenly: but it was not her cue to speak. She yawned and said, "What
_does_ it matter?"
"Don't be unkind, Fanny.
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