"
The queerness of the situation and the reply, made Mrs. Haggert laugh. Then it
all came out; and at the end of Hannasyde's lucid explanation, Mrs. Haggert
said, with the least little touch of scorn in her voice:--"So I'm to act as the
lay-figure for you to hang the rags of your tattered affections on, am I?"
Hannasyde didn't see what answer was required, and he devoted himself generally
and vaguely to the praise of Alice Chisane, which was unsatisfactory. Now it is
to be thoroughly made clear that Mrs. Haggert had not the shadow of a ghost of
an interest in Hannasyde.
Only--only no woman likes being made love through instead of to--specially on
behalf of a musty divinity of four years' standing.
Hannasyde did not see that he had made any very particular exhibition of
himself. He was glad to find a sympathetic soul in the arid wastes of Simla.
When the season ended, Hannasyde went down to his own place and Mrs. Haggert to
hers. "It was like making love to a ghost," said Hannasyde to himself, "and it
doesn't matter; and now I'll get to my work." But he found himself thinking
steadily of the Haggert-Chisane ghost; and he could not be certain whether it
was Haggert or Chisane that made up the greater part of the pretty phantom.
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