"Captain, you have not heard all of the chapter," cried Mrs. Radigan sweetly from the divan, where she sat enthroned amid cushions.
The Guardsman was strangely deaf. He seemed to become strangely talkative, too, for we heard Mignonette laugh and say, "Oh, your Lordship is too flattering." He did say "Aw," but he added something to it, very much to it, indeed, and when he had finished I noticed that she was blushing delightfully and smiling. Poor Mrs. Radigan! The soldier's broad back was toward her, but she could see the two heads together and hear Miss Klapper's musical laugh and the Englishman's joyous "Aw." For a moment she stared at them in amazement; then gathered up the scattered pages of "The Calf Worshippers," arose and exclaimed, "Come girls, it's high time to dress for dinner. I see Carrie and Hethy just coming in."
"Jolly girl, Miss Klapper?" said Lord Algernon to me as we were going upstairs together toward the bachelor quarter of the house.
"From the West," said I.
"Are all your Western girls beautiful?" inquired he gravely.
"All that are asked to visit in the East are," I answered. "Or else rich. The others marry at home."
"Miss Klapper is, of course, rich?" said his Lordship in an offhand way as he polished his monocle.
"Milwaukee," said I. "Klapper's Extra Pale."
"Aw," said he cheerfully.
"But she has no family." I thought it best just to tell him that.