Claudia looked at him, and her lip curled. “That means you are going up the river with a ravishing companion, I suppose?”
“Thou supposeth rightly, oh, wise one! She’s just the most fascinating thing you ever struck.”
“Which musical comedy?” queried Claudia, running her eyes over the collection of invitation cards and pretty women on his mantelshelf. The portraits had inscriptions on them of considerable fervour, and she noticed a family resemblance in the handwritings, which were either sprawly or very dashing, with huge flourishes at the end like a stockwhip in action.
“Never you mind. But she’s a duck, the very thing for a steam-launch. Got the neatest thing in ankles you ever saw. Beastly taking a woman with thick ankles on the river. They’re best hidden under a dinner-table.”
“Can she talk about anything?” asked Claudia curiously, picking up a photograph of a smile and a shoulder.
“She can talk well enough when she wants to. Oh! I know you, Claudia, we’ve had this discussion before. I’ve told you I don’t like clever women. I hate a girl who wants to impress you and talks like a smart novel. Give me a nice, affectionate little thing who’s got a string of funny stories and doesn’t make too many demands on a fellow. She’s worth a hundred clever women, with their soaring nonsense.”
“Is she?” Claudia looked at him thoughtfully as he put his watch in his waistcoat. “I often wonder why you and men like you prefer to spend your time with—well, affectionate little things, rather than with girls in your own set. Personally, I can’t understand your taste. I am sure these girls have common ways and petty thoughts. I couldn’t stand a musical-comedy man for five minutes.”
“Oh! that’s different. The men are awful bounders; you’re quite right. I’d like to see one of them make up to you!”
“Why is it so different?”
“Well, it is. I can’t explain things like that to you, but it is. You’re brainy, old girl, and I don’t pretend to be brainy. A lot of good brains do a woman, unless she’s a schoolmistress. Not that Ruby is stupid. She’s—well, she’s bright, if you know what I mean. She knows how to get what she wants, and knows her way about.”