“To find a dome that was fore and aft, or to put the tape around one that leaned to one side, was life’s extreme limit for those chaps. They even seem to have written books about bumps which any fairly strong man could pack into the thumb of a lady’s glove.”
“And is your friend also interested in this study?” asked the girl.
“Only a little,” replied Scanlon. “He does not make a practice of any one thing, as a matter of fact. He’s the kind of a fellow who has a great many cards up his sleeve; and so he always has one to play when it’s wanted.”
“That,” said Miss Knowles, “is clever of him.”
“And it’s so unusual to find a man interested in biographical bypaths,” said Miss Hohenlo. “The Count, you know, figured largely in the court of Frederic the Great; he was a friend to Voltaire and other men of note, and gave his sword and his genius for the freedom of these states.”
“Sure,” said Bat. “He’s one that I missed, but I can appreciate him for all that.”
The delicate hands went out in a gesture extremely girlish; the spinster’s faded face was full of rapture.
“It is really remarkable how things come about,” she said, “and, somehow, I feel that the visit of Mr. Ashton-Kirk will result in something.”
“I’m sure it will,” said Bat, calmly.
“Frederic has been gathering documents for a long time,” she went on. “I have a number of journals containing data of a most interesting character, and there are letters without number from historical personages. These together will show the beautiful fulness of the Count’s life. When your friend comes again, we must not fail to call his attention to them.”