"Oh!" said I.
Silence again. Then, "It was very good of you to come and see us so quickly after I wrote."
"It was my duty; and my pleasure too" (as second thought). "You must tell me your plans."
So we told them, and Cousin Robert did not approve. "I do not think it will do," said he, firmly.
"I'm afraid it must do," I returned, with equal firmness disguised under a smile.
Phil apologized for me as she gave me a squeeze of the hand.
"We've been very happy together, Nell and I," she explained, "but we have never had much excitement. This is our first chance, and—we shall be well chaperoned by Lady MacNairne."
"Yes; but she is the aunt of the stranger young man."
"Geniuses are never strangers. He is a genius," I said. "You've no idea how his Salon picture was praised."
"But his character. What do you know of that?"