"He is very fond of you, Mrs. Fane—and you know how easy it is for a boy to be laughed out of excesses by a pretty woman of experience. You see I am desperately put to it or I would never have ventured to trouble you—"
"I see," she said, looking at him out of eyes bright with disappointment.
"Could you help us, then?" he asked pleasantly.
"Help us, Captain Selwyn? Who is the 'us,' please?"
"Why, Gerald and me—and his family," he added, meeting her eyes. The eyes began to dance with malice.
"His family," repeated Rosamund; "that is to say, his sister, Miss Erroll. His family, I believe, ends there; does it not?"
"Yes, Mrs. Fane."
"I see. . . . Miss Erroll is naturally worried over him. But I wonder why she did not come to me herself instead of sending you as her errant ambassador?"
"Miss Erroll did not send me," he said, flushing up. And, looking steadily into the smiling doll's face confronting him, he knew again that he had failed.
"I am not inclined to be very much flattered after all," said Rosamund. "You should have come on your own errand, Captain Selwyn, if you expected a woman to listen to you. Did you not know that?"