_ Well, HYPATIA PRENDERGAST! And how many admirers do you have
around under vow, as a regular thing?
_Hyp._ There were only those two. RUSKIN permits as many as seven at
one time.
_Maud._ That's a vurry liberal allowance, too. I don't see how there'd
be sufficient suitors to go round. But maybe each gentleman can be
under vow for seven distinct girls, to make things sort of square now?
_Hyp._ Certainly not. The whole beauty of the idea lies in the
unselfish and exclusive devotion of every knight to the same sovereign
lady. In this case I happen to know that the--a--individual had never
met his ideal until--
_Maud._ Until he met you? At Nuremberg, wasn't it? My! And what was
his name? Do tell!
_Hyp._ You must not press me, sweetest, for I cannot tell that--even
to you.
_Maud._ I don't believe but what I could guess. But say, you didn't
care any for _him_, or you'd never have let him go like that? _I_
wouldn't. I should have suspected there was something behind!
_Hyp._ My feelings towards him were purely potential. I did him the
simple justice to believe that his self-abnegation was sincere. But,
with your practical, cynical little mind, darling, you are hardly
capable of--excuse me for saying so--of appreciating the real value
and meaning of such magnanimity!
_Maud.
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