“They say the girls have to stop their ears tight when he’s ‘fresh,’” said Haldane; “and yet Damages can do a little ‘talking’ off her own from all accounts.”
“You wouldn’t think it to look at her,” said Wagram.
“That’s just it. But I believe it’s a fact, all the same.”
“Well, then, what about this other one?” pursued Wagram mischievously. “She may be just as deceptive, and yet you’ve booked her to lunch at your place next week.”
“I rather pride myself on being a student of character,” said Haldane, “and I don’t, somehow, think this case will prove me wrong.”
“No; I don’t think so either,” assented Wagram.
“I formed a favourable impression of her, too—the mere glimpse I had of her when we met,” said Monsignor Culham. “She certainly is a very pretty girl, and I should think a good one. It might even be that in the fulness of time she should prove the means of salvaging the rest of the family.”
“Her brother Bob would take a great deal of salvaging,” said Haldane drily. “Hallo, the child’s late,” he added, with a glance at the clock. “Said she’d be in before this.”
“In! Why, I thought she might be sleeping off the effects of her efforts yesterday,” said the Squire.
“Not she. She’s adding to them. She’s gone down with Hood to try and capture an early trout.”