"Provided he accepts the offer," added Lord James.
"How can it be otherwise? The salary is simply stupendous for a man of his class and standing."
"Laffie gets only twelve thousand a year, yet he designed the bridge," remarked Dolores. "He told me it wasn't even enough for pin-money."
"I fancy he must contrive to make it go farther since his last trip to town," said Mrs. Gantry. "The little visit proved rather expensive. His father made another reduction in his allowance."
"Goodness!" exclaimed Dolores. "Poor dear Laffie boy! If I conclude to marry him, I shall insist that Papa Ashton is to give me a separate allowance."
"My word, Miss Dolores!" expostulated Lord James. "You're not encouraging that fellow?"
"Oh, it's as well to have more than one hook on the line. Ask mamma if it isn't. Besides, Laffie would be a gilt-edged investment—provided his papa made the right kind of a will. Anyway, I could get Uncle Herbert's lawyers to fix up an agreement as to that—a kind of pre-nuptial alimony contract between me and Laffie's papa's millions."
Mrs. Gantry held up her hands. "Could you have believed it, Genevieve!
She was frivolous enough before I went over for you. But now!"
Dolores coolly disregarded her mother, to turn a meaning look on Lord
James. "If I have frivolled enough, it's about time you said something."
The young Englishman put an uneasy hand to his mustache. "Er—I should have preferred a—a rather more favorable time, Miss Dolores."