"You met her on board?"
"I can't say that. Rather uppish on the steamer. But, do you know her?" eagerly.
"I do. More than that, I have always known her. She is the daughter of the late General Chetwood, one of the greatest civil-engineers of our time. When he died he left her several millions. She is a remarkable young woman, a famous beauty, known favorably in European courts, and I can't begin to tell you how many other accomplishments she has."
"Well, stump me!" returned Mallow. "Is that all straight?"
"Every word of it," with a chilliness that did not escape a man even so impervious as Mallow.
"Is she a free-thinker?"
"What the devil is that? What do you mean?"
"Only this, if she's all you say she is, why does she pick out an absconder for a friend, a chap who dare not show his fiz in the States? I heard the tale from a man once employed in his office back in New York. A beach-comber, a dock-walloper, if there ever was one."
"Mallow, you'll have to explain that instantly."
"Hold your horses, my friend. What I'm telling you is on the level. She's been hobnobbing with the fellow all the way down from the Irrawaddy, so I'm told. Never spoke to any one else. Made him sit at her side at table and jabbered Italian at him, as if she didn't want others to know what she was talking about. I know the man. Fired him from my plantation, when I found out what he was. Can't recall his name just now, but he is known out here as Warrington; Parrot & Co."