“Take heart, little sister, I shall protect you. Oh, it’s rather decent of Armitage to have kept away from you, Shirley, after all that fuss about the bogus baron.”
“Which he wasn’t—”
“Well, Sanderson says he couldn’t have been, and the rogues’ gallery pictures don’t resemble our friend at all.”
“Ugh; don’t speak of it!” and Shirley shrugged her shoulders. She suffered her eyes to climb the slopes of the far hills. Then she looked steadily at her brother and laughed.
“What do you and father and Baron von Marhof want with Mr. John Armitage?” she asked.
“Guess again!” exclaimed Dick hurriedly. “Has that been the undercurrent of your conversation? As I may have said before in this connection, you disappoint me, Shirley. You seem unable to forget that fellow.”
He paused, grew very serious, and bent forward in his wicker chair.
“Have you seen John Armitage since I saw him?”
“Impertinent! How dare you?”
“But Shirley, the question is fair!”