"Yes. Gordon—"
"I am Gordon."
"You!"
"My real name is Gordon but Jimmie doesn't like it. He always said it was too formal for a little girl. So he calls me Red-Robin and he says he'll never call me anything else. Why do you look so funny?"
For Mr. Allendyce seemed to have crumpled together and to be quite speechless.
"Don't you think I'm too, oh, sort of insignificant, to be Gordon? I like Robin much better."
The lawyer did not hear her. Here was a fine balking of all his and Madame's plans. The Forsyth heir! That that heir should be a girl had never entered their calculations. And a little lame girl at that; Mr. Allendyce suddenly recalled how Madame had worshipped the splendid manliness of young Christopher the Third.
"Is there anything the matter with you, Mr.—why, you haven't told me your name!"
With a tremendous effort Cornelius Allendyce pulled himself together. He flushed under the wondering wide-eyed scrutiny of his companion, who reached out and laid a small, warm hand upon his.
"You're not ill, are you?" with solicitude.