"This new alliance on the tapis. He's a very nice little fellow, I have no doubt; but if I were a pretty girl, I don't think I should like nice little fellows. He is just the last sort of a man in the world I could fancy our bright Rose marrying."
"Of course he is! It's a failing of the sex to marry the very last man their friends would expect. But are you quite sure in this case; no April day was ever more changeable than Rose Danton."
"I don't know what you mean. They'll be married to a dead certainty."
"What will you bet on the event?"
"I'm not rich enough to bet; but if I were, it wouldn't be honourable, you know."
Doctor Frank gave him a queer look, as he hooked a fish out of the water.
"Oh, if it becomes a question of honour, I have no more to say. Do you see this fellow wriggling on my hook?"
"Yes."
"Well, when this fish swims again, Rose Danton will be Mrs. La Touche, and you know it."
He said the last words so significantly, and with such a look, that all the blood of all the Stanfords rushed red to Reginald's face.