Deering laughed. "How did you?—but I forgot,—he is evidently a popular member of your society. I—I met him in Count Latour's stables, and found he was well up in sporting, or rather turf, matters. There is very little sport in them. He told me a thing or two, and may be of use."
"I did not know you were going in for racing," said Glynn.
"I take a certain interest in it, and I thought you did." He paused, lit a cigar, and then said abruptly, "Vincent tells me you know Miss Lambert's father; in fact, that you are frequently his favored guest. How does it happen that such a girl can be the outcome of a society of bourgeois and sharpers? You must present me to this father when he appears; I should prefer your sponsorship to Vincent's."
"Why do you want to know a set of people so completely out of your line?"
"I have a motive, not a very high one, I confess, but sufficiently powerful—curiosity. I want to find out something about Miss Lambert's people and history, for I am certain I knew a relative of hers, many years ago."
"Well, you had better fall back on your sporting acquaintance for an introduction, he is much more intimate with Captain Lambert than I am."
"Ha! you refuse to be responsible for me? that's deuced shabby! So he calls himself captain? He is rather a queer fish, isn't he?"
"That depends on our respective ideas touching queer fish. He is not a highly-polished, courtly gentleman, but he is not a bad fellow; and he is devoted to his daughter."
"Indeed! Well, Glynn, I believe you have seen a good deal of the world, and it is pleasant to find that so much faith in your fellow-creatures survives the experience."
"Faith is certainly a more agreeable sensation than doubt," returned Glynn, unmoved. "By the way, I quite forgot I had an engagement this evening. I am late already; there is a fiacre." He hailed it. "Will you drive with me, Deering?"