"I'm glad," said Mavis.
"We left him safe at the palace, and as there's nothing in the papers about anything going wrong, it must be all right."
"Of course," Mavis assented.
"We know Mr Scatchard has his weaknesses; but then, if he hadn't, he wouldn't be the musical artiste he is," declared his wife, at which Mavis, who was just then drinking tea, nearly swallowed it the wrong way.
Mr Napper soon dropped in, to be closely followed by a Mr Webb and a Miss Jennings, who had never met the solicitor's clerk before. Mr Webb and Miss Jennings were engaged to be married. As if to proclaim their unalterable affection to the world, they sat side by side with their arms about each other.
The presence of strangers moved Mr Napper to talk his farrago of philosophical nonsense. It did not take long for Mavis to see that Miss Jennings was much impressed by the flow of many-syllabled words which issued, without ceasing, from the lawyer's clerk's lips. The admiration expressed in the girl's eyes incited Mr Napper to further efforts.
He presently remarked to Miss Jennings:
"I can tell your character in two ticks."
Miss Jennings, who had been wholly resigned to the fact of her insignificance, began to take herself with becoming seriousness.
"How?" she asked, her eyes gleaming with interest.