His advent into the sitting-room produced a gratifying sensation.
"Ha! Who comes here!" cried Mr. Martel. "The glass of fashion and the mould of form." Then he came forward for close inspection. "Hadn't you any better studs than those, my boy?"
"They are the ones that came in the shirt," said Quin, instantly on the defensive.
"Well, they hardly do justice to the occasion. Step upstairs, Cassius, and get my pearl ones out of the top chiffonier drawer."
"I wish Captain Phipps could see you," said Rose admiringly. "You should have seen his face when I told him you were going to-night! He wasn't invited, you know."
"Where did you see him?" Quin asked, brushing a speck of lint from the toe of his shining shoe.
"Here. He's been coming twice a week to work with Papa Claude ever since you left. Give 'em to me, Cass"—this to her brother. "I'll put them in."
"Aren't they too little for the buttonholes?" asked Quin anxiously.
"Not enough to matter," Rose insisted. Then, as she finished, she added in a whisper: "Tell Nell somebody sent his love."
"Nothing doing," laughed Quin with a superior shrug; "somebody else is taking his."