“They are so educational,” said Cheriton. “Develop the mind. Show how intelligence can be inculcated into the most unlikely things. Horses good at arithmetic, dogs playing whist, cats indulging in spiritualism. Very educational indeed. Clown imitating monkey in lifelike manner. Illustration of the origin of species. One more sugar-plum, my dear Miss Araminta, and then Marchbanks will summon a taximeter, if possible, with a tonneau painted pink.”
“Gobo is going to take me to the Horse Show to-morrow,” Miss Perry announced.
“Who, pray, is Gobo?” Aunt Caroline and Lord Cheriton demanded in one breath.
“He asked me to call him Gobo,” said Miss Perry, helping herself calmly to sugar-plums, “and I asked him to call me Goose.”
Cheriton’s countenance was unmistakably a study. The same might be said of that of Aunt Caroline.
“My dear young lady,” said Cheriton, “this cannot be. One of the most dangerous men in London. Really, Caroline, you must forbid that old ruffian the house. As for the Horse Show to-morrow, it is clearly out of the question.”
“I promised Gobo,” said Miss Perry, “and I don’t like to break a promise; do you?”
“My dear young lady, you are much too young and inexperienced to make a promise, let alone to keep one. I speak as I feel sure your papa would do were he in my place, and as I know I should do were I in the place of your papa. Your aunt is quite of that opinion; I speak for her also. You must not call that man Gobo, he must not call you Goose, and as for the Horse Show, it is out of the question.”
“But everybody calls me Goose,” said Miss Perry, “because I am rather a silly.”
“Caroline,” said Cheriton, with much gravity, “if you will take the advice of your oldest friend you will forbid that man the house. My dear Miss Araminta, let us try to obliterate a very disagreeable impression by spending a quietly educational afternoon at the circus.”