“Indeed, asked to spend the evening?” replied the alert old gentleman. “I can’t say that I see anything remarkable in that, Scarlett.”
Jack smiled. “By a most charming young lady, I assure you.”
“Ah, that is another matter, quite a different matter, my dear sir.”
“Ostensibly, it was to meet her father, but hang me if the old gentleman put in an appearance!”
“Ho-ho! Better, Scarlett, better still. And what did you do, you rascal?”
“I did nothing. It was the young lady who took up the running.”
“But wasn’t she provided with a judicious Mama, in the background somewhere?”
“No, a calamity seems to have befallen the Mama. She’s non est.”
“That’s very good. The girl depends for protection solely upon her Papa?”
“I remarked that, and said, ‘Your Father will hardly approve of my coming to see you in his absence.’ ‘Oh, you needn’t mind that,’ she said—‘he trusts me implicitly. And as for you—didn’t you save me, the other night?’ You see, I found a drunken digger molesting her, and threw him into the river. But I haven’t so much as seen the old boy yet.”