"Your uncle is awfully rich too, isn't he?" asked Miss Lambert after a moment's silence.
"Yes; why?"
"I was only thinking."
"What were you only thinking?"
"I was thinking if I had to marry one or the other, which I'd chose."
Leavesley squirmed with pleasure: that was one for Bevan. He instinctively hated Bevan. He, little knowing the mind of Miss Lambert, thought this indecision of choice between his uncle and another man an exquisitely veiled method of describing the other man's undesirability.
"Marry uncle," he said with a laugh. "And then we can all live together in Gordon Square, uncle, and you, and I, and aunt, and old Verneede. The house would hold the lot of us."
"And father."
"Of course," said Leavesley, thinking she spoke in fun, "and a few more—the Captain: you don't know the Captain; he's a treasure, and would make the menagerie quite complete."
"And we could go for picnics," said Fanny.