"You're three hundred different kinds of fool, Bram, if you let him rook you like that."
"He's been too clever for me," grumbled Bramham, and shut his mouth on his pipe.
"H'm! Mind the girl's not too clever for you too."
A plaintive expression came into Bramham's face, mingled with irritation; he took his pipe out again.
"My dear Karri, don't I tell you that I have nothing to do with the girl, or she with me? I was sorry for her and helped her out of a hole, and there the matter ends. I don't really regret the money—because of that other girl—but as you know, I am not a millionaire, and three hundred is three hundred. What annoys me is that I should have been such a fool——"
"Why did you pay? I should have refused."
"Oh no, you wouldn't, because the women would have had to get out. No, that would never have done."
"Well," said Carson, getting up and walking down the long verandah. "It's just as well that Mrs. Brookfield has come back. I wouldn't live in the house with Brookfield after this." He went indoors and began to negotiate a whiskey-and-soda.
"Oh, come, I say, Karri!" Bramham got up and came and leaned in the doorway, one leg in the room and one in the verandah. "This isn't your affair, you know. Don't you get your back up about it. I've really no right to have told you; but you understand that I've been a good deal annoyed, and it's been a relief to speak of it. Of course, if Brookie had been here I should have gone into his room and blazed away at him after dinner and got rid of it that way. As it is, I feel better and there's no harm done. By Jove! what a glorious moon! Let's go for a tramp before we turn in."
"Right!"