"Her father, Stephen Leighton," Mrs. Fairhew continued, making no answer but a hardly perceptible smile to his statement, "was a thoroughly charming man and of very good family. You can't deny that, Mr. Castleport."
"I haven't any wish to. I'm not trying to run down Edna Leighton—Rafton, that is."
"I always thought," began Katrine. Then she stopped, with an involuntary movement of the eyes in the direction of Taberman.
"Oh, I was hit there once," Tab said jovially, "if that's what you mean. I got over it at a boat race."
They all laughed, and the topic seemed exhausted, when the elder lady said:—
"We shall have sight of them at Florence, I suppose. They are to be at the Villa Foscagni for the summer. It belongs to the Raftons."
"When do you expect to get there?" Tab inquired carelessly.
"Florence? In five or six days."
"Five or six days!" cried Jack. "Why, when do you leave here?"
"To-morrow afternoon," answered Katrine in a tone of which the indifference might have struck Jack as a little overdone had he not been too perturbed to notice.