'Just so. He has got a lease of a concert-room in town, and he would give me five pounds a week to sing two nights a week through the season!'
'Lance!' Robina could only stand breathless.
'I'll tell you all about it. You know Edgar came and called me just at dinner-time.'
'I know, and Felix got no dinner at all except a sandwich that Wilmet sent down.'
'Well, that was his own fault. However, there they were at the Fortinbras Arms, in the best blue room, just come down to breakfast.'
'Who? The Hungarians?'
'Yes. Mr. Allen and M. Prebel were waiting for the lady, to ring and have the hot things up. What a stunner she is, to be sure! the finest woman I ever saw in my life, and such pretty ways when she can't find an English word, I should think a queen must be just like her.'
'Yes, if she is waited for in that way. Did you get anything to eat, then, Lance?'
'Didn't we, though? Why, they had asked us to breakfast; and such a breakfast I never set eyes on—devilled kidneys, and pie with truffles in it, and pine-apple jam—and wine! They asked for wines that Reid the waiter had never heard of—nor, it is my belief, Mr. Jones either.'
'But is this all to come out of their expenses that are paid for them?'