Paddy made him a mock bow. “I’m sure I feel highly honoured,” she said, “but you mustn’t tell the other girls, or they’d be frightfully jealous, and hate me like anything.”
“Well, you needn’t mind that,” he replied stoutly. “I’ll look after you, and settle them pretty quick if they’re cheeky.”
“That’s all right, then. Let’s set to work and win this set, because I have an important engagement directly after tea.”
Bob’s face fell a little at this, but he quickly decided to make the best of the prevailing good, and not worry about what came next.
But Paddy did not get away quite so quickly as she had intended, as Kitty Irvine came and pulled her on one side to tell her an important piece of news in confidence.
“Have you seen him?” she exclaimed in an eager undertone. “Isn’t he perfectly scrumptious?”
“Seen who!” asked Paddy in bewilderment—“Who’s perfectly scrumptious?”
“Why, Colonel Masterman’s nephew, of course. You must have heard about him?”
“The Mastermans at Carlingford?” still unenlightened.
“Yes, Colonel Masterman has a nephew come to stay with them, from London. Fancy you not knowing!”