'My good young lady,' he said, 'you seem to me a very true-hearted girl. I don't know why, but that is the way in which I take your measure and add you up.'
Dolores was a little amazed at first; but she saw that his eyes expressed nothing save honest purpose, and she did not dream of being offended by his kindly patronising words.
'You may add me up in any way you like,' she said. 'I am pretty good at addition myself, and I think I shall come out that way in the end.'
'I know it,' he said, with a quite satisfied air, as if her own account of herself had settled any lingering doubt he might possibly have had upon his mind. 'Very well; now you say you can add up figures pretty well—and, in fact, I know you do, because you help your father to keep his books, now don't you?'
'Of course I do,' she answered promptly, 'and very proud of it I am that I can assist him.'
'Quite right, my dear. Well, now, as you are so good in figuring up things, I wonder could you figure me up?'
There was something so comical in the question, and in the manner and look of the man who propounded it, that Dolores could not keep from a smile, and indeed could hardly prevent the smile from rippling into a laugh. For Captain Sarrasin threw back his head, stiffened up his frame, opened widely his grey eyes, compressed his lips, and in short put himself on parade for examination.
'Figure me up,' he said, 'and be candid with it, dear girl. Say what I come up to in your estimation.'
Dolores tried to take the whole situation seriously.
'Look into my eyes,' he said imperatively. 'Tell me if you see anything dishonest or disloyal, or traitorous there?'