"Always willing to," smiled Penwell.
Vandervent blushed.
"Unfortunately, sometimes, a Vandervent is always a Vandervent."
"Thou speakest truth, O Sage!" laughed the young man.
"And what a Vandervent eats for breakfast makes snappy reading, I think you'd call it, for hoi polloi, eh?"
"Continue. You interest me strangely," said Penwell.
"My engagement—its announcement rather—would be a 'beat' of some value?"
Penwell bowed to Clancy.
"Miss Deane, gaze upon a man so sinful that he takes a bribe." He turned to Vandervent. "The Era won't print a word about Miss Deane. Who's the lady?"