“But how on earth has it happened that I never heard a whisper of this preposterous thing?”
“It is extraordinary. Sometimes the one interested is the last to hear what every one is talking about.”
“Well, I never was so—amused!” Yet Mrs. Carshaw’s wintry smile was not joyous. “Rex! I must laugh him out of it, if I meet him anywhere!”
“That you will not succeed in doing, I think.”
“Well, then I’ll frown him out of it. This is why—I see all now.”
“There you are hardly wise, to think of either laughing or frowning him out of it,” said Meiklejohn, offering her worldly wisdom. “No, in such cases there is a better way, take my word for it.”
“And that is?”
“Approach the girl. Avoid carefully saying one word to the young man, but approach the girl. That does it, if the girl is at all decent, and has any sensibility. Lay the facts plainly before her. Take her into your confidence—this flatters her. Invoke her love for the young man whom she is hurting by her intimacy with him—this puts her on her honor. Urge her to fly from him—this makes her feel herself a martyr, and turns her on the heroic tack. That is certainly what I should do if I were you, and I should do it without delay.”
“You’re right. I’ll do it,” said Mrs. Carshaw. “Do you happen to know where this girl is to be found?”
“No. I think I can tell, though, from whom you might get the address—Helen Tower. I heard your son talking to her last night about the girl. He was wanting to know whether Helen could put him in the way of placing her on the stage.”