“Are you still at this nonsense?” she asked, with a smile, it is true, but not a very flattering one.
“Still at it, Kate,” he replied, looking highly annoyed with her tone.
Evidently this hobby of his was a sore subject between them and one which did not raise him in her estimation. For a moment I was assailed by compunction at having thus let her convict him in the ridiculous act. “Yet, after all, they are May and December.” I reflected, “and if the worst comes to the worst, I can find a much more suitable friend for this 'niece.'”
With a movement that was graceful in spite of its free and easy absence of restraint, she rummaged first for and then in her pocket and produced a letter which she handed to her “uncle,” asking, “What is the meaning of this beastly thing?”
Yes, unquestionably her language, like her carriage and her eyes, had something of the savage queen.
The General read the missive with a frown and glanced in my direction uncomfortably as he answered, “It is obviously—er—”
“Oh, it's by way of being a bill,” she interrupted. “I don't need to be told that. But what am I to do?”
“Pay it.”
“Well, then, I'll need—” She stopped, glanced at me, and then, with a defiantly careless laugh, said, boldly, “I'll need an advance.”
“The deuce you will!” said the General. “At this moment I can scarcely go into—”