"That's like you, Jimmy!"
"To be sure. But I really must be going. Good-day, Miss Genevieve."
The girl looked up without attempting to conceal her affection and sympathy for him.
"Dear friend," she said, "before you go, I wish to tell you how highly
I value and appreciate—"
"No more, no more, I beg of you," he protested, with genial insistence.
"Tom, I'll be dropping in on you at your office."
He bowed to Genevieve, and still cloaking his hurt with a cheerful smile, started to leave them. At the same moment Mr. Leslie came hurrying into the room. The sight of Lord James brought him to a stand.
"H'm!" he coughed. "So it's you, Lord Avondale? Hodges said—" His keen eyes glanced past the Englishman to the big form across the corner of the table from Genevieve. "What! Right, was he?—Genevieve."
"Yes, papa?" replied the girl, looking at Blake with a startled gaze. She was very pale, but her delicately curved lips straightened with quiet determination. She did not rise.
"Er—glad to meet you again so soon, Mr. Leslie," said Lord James, deftly placing himself so that the other could not avoid his proffered hand without marked discourtesy. Mr. Leslie held out his flaccid fingers. They were caught fast and retained during a cordial and prolonged handshake.
"When we first met," went on his lordship suavely, "time was lacking for me to congratulate you on the fact that your daughter came through her terrible experience so well. She has assured me that she feels all the better for it. Only one, like myself, accustomed to knocking about the tropics, can fully realize the extraordinary resourcefulness and courage of the man who had the good fortune to bring her through it all safely and, as she says, bettered."