"What did Mrs. Fane say?"
Fane laughed. "Oh, she didn't mind. She never cared for the sea herself. Between you and me, Mr. Tracey, my wife is fonder of business than pleasure. I am the reverse."
"All the same, Fane, you must attend to business now."
"What, Calvert, do you call your engagement to Laura business?"
Arnold looked surprised. "I did not ask you here to talk about that," he replied still seriously.
"Oh," answered Fane carelessly, and taking out a cigarette, "I thought you wanted me to make things square with Julia."
"Laura and I understand one another," said Arnold, returning to his seat with a green-covered book in his hand. "I am now well off, and there is no bar to our marriage."
"I am glad of that. A lucky thing for you, the death of that woman."
"I would rather she had lived, poor soul," said Calvert with emotion.
Fane shrugged his shoulders. "We all have to die some time."