“To Ballyshank!� retorted the judge, jamming his hat down on his head.
They all emerged into the outer room just as Miss Royall appeared in the shop-door. She was dressed in a pink muslin with a wide straw hat trimmed with pink roses, and looked like a woodland nymph. The judge swung off his hat.
“We’ve been having a political tournament,� he said, “and now comes the Queen of Love and Beauty.�
Diana liked the old man and smiled her most charming smile. Miss Sarah went up and pecked her cheek, a rite that elderly ladies still like to perform in public. Trench, longing to play the host but too proud to risk a rebuke, bowed silently. Something in Diana’s eye warned him that she was minded to make him repent the dance she had given him; the scoldings she had received were rankling in her mind. Unhappily, too, something in the judge’s manner said, “So ho! is this a flirtation?� Her cheeks burned.
The judge blundered. “Let me offer a chair,� he said, with old-fashioned courtesy, “then we will ask you to help us solve a riddle of Sarah’s. She has found that Juniper is unusually rich, a kind of ebony John Jacob Astor, the proud possessor of fifty dollars.�
Diana declined the chair. “Juniper?� she repeated. “Oh, yes, I know all about it!�
“Did he steal it from you, dear?� Miss Sarah asked excitedly.
“Jacob Eaton gave it to him,� Diana replied simply, “he thought he needed it; he’s been out of work, and you know what a nuisance Lysander is.�
“But fifty dollars, my dear!� protested Miss Hollis faintly.
Diana caught the glances between the judge and Trench and stiffened. “My cousin is generous,� she said.