In the ripple of laughter which followed the logic, Orr turned to Mrs. Loftus, Annandale to Miss Waldron, Loftus to Fanny Price.
"You take very kindly to snubbing, don't you?" said the latter.
"I?"
"Oh, pooh! The other day I saw Mr. Royal Loftus trying to scrape acquaintance with a young person in the street. I never laughed more in my life. She would not look at you. Is that sort of thing amusing? Why don't you take a girl of your size?"
Loftus looked into Fanny's eyes. "If you want to know, because you are all so deuced prim."
"Ah!" and Fanny made a tantalizing little face, showing, as she did so, the point of her tongue. "Now tell me, what makes you think so?"
Across the table Annandale was talking to Sylvia Waldron. His manner was rather earnest, but his utterance had become a trifle thick.
"Oh, Arthur," the girl at last interrupted him. "Don't drink any more. You have had five glasses of champagne already."
Heroically Annandale put his glass down. "Since you wish it, I won't. But it does not hurt me. I can stand anything."
"I am afraid it may grow on you."