"No, she is charming, and so popular. She is sympathetic, clear-headed, and practical—everyone takes their troubles to Mrs. Gordon."
"And you are sending her your trouble by rail?"
"Nonsense, Angel, she will look upon you as a great boon, and be infinitely obliged to me. I am sure you will like her."
"Why should you be sure?" she protested; "sometimes I like the people I ought not to like, and don't like the people I ought to like—and there is no dependence on me."
"What a way to talk," he exclaimed. "It will be strange if you and Mrs. Gordon don't hit it off."
"Do you think I shall shock her—as I do you?"
"I was not aware that I was shocked. She is a good woman, who is not narrow-minded, and her friends are many and various. Lucky is the young man or girl, who, on first coming out, falls into her sphere. There are very few people who have not been the better for Mrs. Gordon's influence."
"And yet she cannot influence her own husband," Remarked Angel drily. "He is still a bear."
"Unfortunately he is—and a grizzly bear at that," admitted Gascoigne. "He has no interest in life beyond his work, which includes personal ambition, a certain class of Persian love-songs—and perhaps—his liver."
"What a mixture!" she ejaculated. "Well, I shall insist on his taking an interest in me, and before long, you will hear of his spouting Persian love-songs, as we stroll up and down among roses, and bul-buls."