“I never dreamed you were ashamed of them, sir,” and Dorcas gave up the idea of peacemaking and became irritating.
“Nor am I!” he blazed. “You are an impertinent chit, and I bid you good-day!”
“Now you have done it!” said Bates.
CHAPTER III
The Scrawled Message
But, as it turned out, Dorcas hadn’t “done it” at all. Bates on reaching his aunt’s apartment found no one at home. But very soon Sir Herbert Binney appeared.
“Look here, Richard,” he began, “I’ve taken a fancy to that little girl of yours——”
“She isn’t mine.”
“You’d like her to be?”