Your gallant efforts have so far been unsuccessful, but I shall
pray that you may some day return victorious."
Quincy replied in the same tone of banter: "Knowing that you, fair lady,
are ever thinking of me, and that my name is ever upon your fair lips in
prayer, will spur me to renewed effort, for surely no cavalier ever had
a more lovely mistress or a greater incentive to knightly action."
Although he spoke in a chaffing tone, there was an undercurrent of
seriousness in his manner and pathos in his voice that made Alice start
and flush visibly.
Fearing that he had gone too far he quickly changed the subject by
asking abruptly, "Have you come to any decision about your book?"
"Yes," replied Alice, "and I am ashamed to say that your friend's
suggestion and your warm endorsement of it have so increased my egotism
and enlarged my appreciation of my own abilities that I am tempted to
try it, especially now, as you inform me I am independent and can do as
I please."
"Have you progressed so far as to fix upon a subject?" inquired Quincy.
"Yes, provisionally," replied Alice.
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