“Humph!” The colonel pulled his mustache thoughtfully. “I see you’re determined to like her, Jinny.”
“I want to—yes.”
“You can’t,” said the colonel gently, laying his hand on her shoulder. “It’s a case of sugar and salt, you can’t mix ’em. Don’t try too hard, Jinny. Leave her alone.”
Something in his tone made Virginia look up quickly.
“Why, sir?”
Colonel Denbigh hesitated; then he blushed like a girl.
“I don’t talk scandal, Jinny, you know that, but I hear some. Let her alone.”
“Oh, that dance—”
He shook his head.
“No, not the dance. That only unloosed tongues. You spoke of that man, Caraffi’s manager—what was his name?”