“Heavens!” said the Judge. “I stand confounded. It is virtue past all the known limits of exemplariness. I wish a few women of my acquaintance could hear you.”
Charlotte lifted her brows and smiled with kindly malice. “Your friend Mrs. Badgerly is well?” she inquired sweetly.
“You are no less a mind reader than you formerly were, I perceive. My friend Mrs. Badgerly is quite well. She was in my thoughts when I gave utterance to my wish. My friend Mrs. Badgerly is one of your admirers, Mrs. Collingwood.”
“Since when?”
“Since that memorable day on which you so effectually snubbed her.”
“I am glad I did it,” Charlotte said emphatically, and they both laughed.
“It has been done more brutally, I believe,” said the Judge, “but never more thoroughly. She appreciates your powers. She really does.”
To this bit of by-talk the Commissioner and Martin had been paying a desultory attention as they sipped their tea. At that point, Charlotte brought the conversation back to something which would include the other guests, and the Judge got no further opportunity to engross her attention, till, the dark falling, a servant lit a lamp in the sala, and Charlotte excused herself on the plea of a housekeeper’s duties. She left the group on the veranda enjoying the warm starlit darkness, across which the steamer’s lights gleamed cosily. Judge Barton, glancing behind him, saw her superintending the laying of the table in the living-room of the cottage, and he abruptly rose and joined her.
“Can’t I help?” he said by way of excuse for presenting himself. “I have brought all this nuisance down upon you. I might be allowed to make myself useful if I can.” Then in reply to her assurance that there was nothing that he could do, and that she regarded the occasion as a treat and not as a nuisance, he went on, “Then can’t I stay and talk to you?” He took the permission for granted and without waiting for a reply, glanced around the room, which, with its quaintly adorned walls, its tasteful photographs and water-colors, its gleaming brass, and the glancing lights on carved teak and inlaid blackwood, was full of charm.
“What an absolutely delightful room! and this old table! Where does Collingwood pick up these things?”