"Always the perfection of tact," she mocked. "It would be more flattering that you should remember. Though not too much."
"A cliff of beaten gold overlooking a sea of shimmering silver, a waft of perfume on the air, the charm of beauty and mystery, both of which still endure after these seven years."
"Shall I dispel the mystery? I was Mrs. Parker then only because an independent-minded vagrant such as I am finds travel in Europe more convenient under a married name than as a Miss. So one does not take, but invents a husband. Here and now I am Ralph Fentriss's half-sister and Patricia Fentriss's aunt."
"Something of an occupation in itself," he reflected aloud.
"It is. What, if one may ask, are you doing in that gallery? Pat curled herself on the foot of my bed this morning and discussed the universe for an hour. Chiefly you."
"Vastly flattered! Et après?"
"Afterward? That is for you to answer, isn't it? Why are you laying siege to the child's mind?"
"Because I dislike waste. It is too keen a mind to be frittered away on nothings."
"Has Pat been making love to you?" The question was put without the slightest alteration of the easy tone.
"Really, that's a question which——"