"Aunt Emily! For heaven's sake, is the girl hanging about open-mouthed for the first hook tossed to her?"
"No. But, Ken, she is the kind that men want—the kind they hold sacred in their souls and hardly dare hope ever to see in the flesh. The girl made me want to grab her. I remember as a child she was charming—she's a perfect, but very human, woman now."
With this Mrs. Tweksbury dilated upon what Doris had confided of Nancy's loyal and devoted life.
"You see, Ken," Mrs. Tweksbury ran on, "the girl is like a rare thing that you cannot debate much about, and once lost, the opportunity will never come again. I've gone off about her, Ken."
"I should say you had! Will you smoke, Aunt Emily?"
"Yes!"
To see Emily Tweksbury smoke was about as incongruous as to see an antique remodelled to bring it up to date; but the smoke calmed her.
"You will call with me upon her, won't you, Ken?"
"With pleasure."
Raymond felt that any compromise would be well to offer.