"The mind of a girl works oddly."
"What did she say?"
"That was Molly Waddington," said Hamilton Beamish.
"What did she say?"
"I am by no means sure," said Mr. Beamish regarding George owlishly through his spectacles, "that, after all, everything has not happened for the best. I omitted to take into my calculations the fact that what has occurred would naturally give you in the eyes of a warm-hearted girl, surrounded normally by men with incomes in six figures, a certain romantic glamour. Any girl with nice instincts must inevitably be attracted to a penniless artist whom her mother forbids her to see."
"What did she say?"
"She asked me if you were a friend of mine."
"And then what did she say?"
"She told me that her stepmother had forbidden you the house and that she had been expressly ordered never to see you again."
"And what did she say after that?"