"Have you too been listening to the organ?" he asked.
"Yes," said Dora, "I was there when you came up. I have been shopping. Frank came out with me, but disappeared."
Jim devoutly hoped that Frank would not reappear. Dora was carrying a heavy marketing-net--the shops keep open late in Blackfriars Road--and Jim promptly possessed himself of this.
"Frank ought to have been carrying it," explained Dora, as they walked down the by-street, "but," she added, "you know what brothers are!"
"I have heard accounts of them," said Jim, "but can't speak from experience, as I haven't any."
"Nor sisters?"
"Nor sisters either," said Jim; "nobody, in fact, but a grandfather."
"Dear me!" said Dora, "what a very lonely boy you must have been! I suppose your grandfather is very fond of you?"
"I think he has a sort of mild affection for me," said Jim, "but unfortunately I offended him when I--er--when I was put on The Total Abstainers black list."
Dora seemed interested.