“That suits me,” said Charmian. “To be frank, I hardly wanted to go into the thing alone. This is going to be my life’s big adventure—the adventure that I have been planning for and longing for and waiting for for several years. This looks like the big opportunity at last—and I’m going to take a chance.”
And here a new voice piped up.
“Charmian Reemy,” said Mary Temple, “you are not going down into that hideous country with the hideous name in the company of four strange men.”
“Why, old dear,” laughed Charmian, “two of them are not strangers at all.”
“What two are not, please?”
“Doctor Inman Shonto is known all over the United States and Europe,” Charmian pointed out. “And Mr. Jerome is his friend. What better recommendation could one ask for, Mary Temple?”
“There will be four men, and only two women,” Mary told her. “And it’s—it’s all but downright indecent.”
“Two women?”
“Certainly. You are one, and I am one.”
“Oh, you mean to go, too, then? I thought you would return to San Francisco and wait there for me.”