"Mr. Coxon? Oh, dear, no! Poor man! There's no danger from him."
"What's in the wind then?"
"She's too intimate with these Medlands."
"My dear Mary! Forgive me, but you're in danger of becoming a monomaniac. The Medlands are not lepers."
Lady Eynesford shut her lips close and made no answer.
"What harm can they do her?" pursued the Governor. "Daisy's a nice girl, and Medland—well, the worst he can do is to make her a Radical, and it doesn't matter two straws what she is."
Lady Eynesford's foot tapped on the floor.
"I suppose you'll laugh at me," she said. "Indeed it's absurd enough to make any one laugh, but, Willie, I'm not quite sure that Alicia isn't too much——"
The sentence was cut short by the entrance of Alicia herself.
"Ah! Al!" cried the Governor. "Come here. Would you like to join Dick in Australia?"