"Is he?" said the old lady, in rather acrid tones. "I didn't think you knew him."
"Not know him!" exclaimed Frank; "why, mother dear, how on earth should he call here if I didn't know him?"
"He might be a friend of your wife's, my dear."
"But my wife's friends are mine, are they not?"
"It does not always follow, Frank," said the old lady calmly; "besides, I thought if he had been a friend of yours, he would have called sometimes when you were at home."
Frank looked up quickly with a flushed face; then said, "What nonsense, mum! the man is an old friend of Barbara's, and comes at such times as are most convenient to himself. You don't understand the set of people he lives with, mum."
"Very likely not, my dear; and I'm sure I'm not sorry for it; for they seem strange enough; at least to a quiet old-fashioned body like myself, who was taught never to receive male friends when my husband--however, that's neither here nor there." And Mrs. Churchill bustled out.
When Barbara came down to luncheon, Frank said to her, "I hear you had Captain Lyster here, last night, Barbara."
"Oh, yes," she replied, "I forgot to tell you; he sat here some time."
"He comes pretty frequently, doesn't he?"