It was a very few minutes after this that he found himself seated very close to the sympathetic widow's side, with one arm encircling a considerable segment of what had been a remarkably trim waist, and the other hand toying with a collection of ruby and amethyst rings.
"I do hope I shan't disappoint you, Heriot," she murmured.
"No fear of that, my dear," said he, pinching one of her plump fingers.
"It will be rather a Darby and Joan marriage, of course," she smiled.
"Will it?" replied Heriot, with a glint out of the corner of his eye that reminded her forcibly of the late Captain Dunbar.
"Oh, Heriot!" she expostulated. "Remember you're the father of a grown-up family."
"Well," he replied, with amorous facetiousness, "what man has done, man can do."
The lady endeavored gently to withdraw her hand, but he held it firmly.
"Will it be a long engagement?" she asked, with a colder smile.