"Is she one of a family,—or an only daughter?"
"She has a father,—that is all. No brothers or sisters. He seems to be a cantankerous old fellow. I stumbled upon them in the Park—the Colonel snoring, and his daughter keeping guard over him. We had a little private confab, not a word of which he heard, after which he solemnly avowed that he hadn't been to sleep. Miss Tracy's manner of taking the fiction was perfect. He knows nobody and goes nowhere; so the young lady's round of spring gaieties consisted of one afternoon tea."
"What is she like? Pretty?"
"Rather hard to say. She is pretty and not pretty. Sometimes the one and sometimes the other. Curiously self-possessed, for a girl who has never been into society; and simplicity itself. With a spice of keenness and oddity. Oh, she is uncommon, and decidedly taking. Improves on acquaintance. You must have heard of her, by-the-bye! She is the heroine who saved old Mrs. Effingham last Christmas from being run over. Edred was on the spot."
Dolly's interest, languid hitherto, was wide awake now.
"We never heard," she said. "Mrs. Effingham?"
"A friend of Edred's. I know her name," observed Margot.
"Edred had better give you the facts himself. There he is!"
Mervyn stood up, and after some vigorous signals from him, Edred approached,—not too willingly, it would seem from his manner.
"I say, I want you to describe that little scene last Christmas, when Miss Tracy saved Mrs. Effingham from being run over. Margot and Dolly have never heard of it."