Her features remained expressionless, but the colour came back as though the worst of the shock were over.
"I see," she said seriously. "Professor Challis ought to know of this sad condition of affairs. I have heard of Lamour's disease."
"Indeed, she ought to be told at once," he said, delighted. "You'll inform her, won't you?"
"If you wish."
"Thank you! Thank you!" he said fervently. "You are certainly the most charmingly reasonable of your delightful sex. The Governor will be tremendously obliged to you——"
"Is the Governor—are his—his affections—to use an obsolete expression—fixed upon any particular——"
"Oh, no!" he said, smiling; "the Governor isn't in love—except—er—generally. He's a gay bird. The Governor never, in all his career, saw a single specimen of your sex which—well, which interested him as much—well, for example," he added in a burst of confidence, "as much even as you interest me!"
"Which, of course, is not at all," she said, laughing.
"Oh, no—no, not at all——" he hesitated, biting his moustache and looking at her.
"I'll tell you one thing," he said; "if the Governor ever did get entirely well—er—recovered—you know what I mean?"
