"But your man, Miss Mulrady--the Askew chap?"
"Lady Jim an' I 'ull swap humans. What say?" and she looked at Leah, mischievously overdoing the slang.
"I never swap what isn't my own property," answered Lady Jim, considering this offer too Western, and resenting the familiarity to the extent of walking into the Casino with her head very much in the air. America could hold her own with the mother-country, and Leah did not approve.
"She wants to be the whole show an' the box-office," murmured Mamie, mischievously. "Stay here, Bub."
"I am sorry to refuse a lady," replied Billy, resenting the word; "but I've put my money on Lady Jim, this trip."
"On the red--hair, you mean. Go bye-bye with your nurse, then. Here's Mr. Askew, he's older than you."
"And easier to please," snapped the youth, much offended. "You'll excuse me, Miss Mulrady, but a man can't keep a woman waitin'."
He retired into what Lady Jim called the "devil's parlour" with a Floreat Etona air, and Miss Mulrady, after a glance at the ears which she longed to box soundly, turned to receive a breathless apology from the belated Askew.
"There's a friend of yours gone in to sin for an hour," said she, when a treaty was concluded.
"I have so many friends--so-called."