She made a movement, as if about to follow the others, but instantly he put out his hand to detain her.
"Not yet, please. I have so many things I want to talk to you about."
In spite of herself, Virginia smiled at his boyish earnestness of manner.
"What, for instance?"
"Among them is—myself."
"I know a great deal about you already," she said. "The newspapers and magazines have been full of the history of the man who, starting with nothing, has become a power in the railroad and financial world. It only needed one thing to make it fit for the model young man's story-book—it neglected to say—'our hero neither drinks nor smokes.'"
"It couldn't," he laughed. "I do both."
"Another public idol shattered!" she exclaimed merrily.
He joined in the fun with her, in his frank, boyish way.
"Behave, now!" he laughed.