He broke off to greet the two girls, and Loraine immediately took the field.
"Oh, Mr. Bateman! I've been wanting to see you. Wasn't it you who was telling me what to do for a dog when he is continually getting sore paws?"
The secretary shook his head.
"It must have been someone else, Miss Wade. Though, as a matter of fact, I do happen to know—"
"What a wonderful young man you are," interrupted Loraine. "You know about everything."
"One should keep abreast of modern knowledge," said Mr. Bateman seriously. "Now about your dog's paws—"
Terence O'Rourke murmured sotto voce to Bundle:
"'Tis a man like that that writes all those little paragraphs in the weekly papers. 'It is not generally known that to keep a brass fender uniformly bright,' etc.; 'The dorper beetle is one of the most interesting characters in the insect world'; 'The marriage customs of the Fingalese Indians,' and so on."
"General information, in fact."
"And what more horrible two words could you have?" said Mr. O'Rourke, and added piously: "Thank the Heavens above I'm an educated man and know nothing whatever upon any subject at all."