"I know nothing against him," said Mr. Grubb, emphatically. "I have seen but little of him, but that little I like."
"He is very nice and very good, and quite worthy to be adopted by you and Sarah, colonel," spoke up Lady Frances in her free way. "I'm sure the manner he slaves away in that red-tape office he is chained to, ought to be a gold feather in his cap."
"A gold feather?" repeated the literal colonel, looking at the speaker questioningly. While Mr. Howard, who knew what "slaving away" amounted to in a red-tape office, indulged in a silent laugh.
"Well, ought to tell in his favour, I mean," said Frances, mending her speech.
"I suppose he only does what he is put to do—his daily work," continued the colonel. "That, he cannot shirk: he has nothing to look to but his salary to pay his way. There's no merit in doing one's simple duty."
"I think there is a great deal, when it is such hard work as Gerard's," contended Frances. And this time Mr. Howard laughed outright at the "hard work."
"Perhaps the hard work is keeping him tonight," suggested Mr. Grubb, with just the ghost of a smile.
"No," said Frances, "I think the office closes at four."
"Oh," cried the colonel. "Where is he then? What does he mean by staying away?"
"He is run over, of course," said Frances, "and taken to the nearest hospital. Nothing short of that would have kept him away."