O'Rane looked at her gravely for a moment, then he asked:
"Why d'you allow yourself to be seen in a house like that?"
"What's the harm?" Sonia demanded gaily. "He did us awfully well."
"You admit he's an outsider, yet you accept his hospitality...."
"Oh, you little Oxford boys with your logic!" Sonia laughed. "Have a choc.? They're Lord Summertown's farewell present. You'll take care of him in America, won't you, David? He's such a love, I should never forgive you if you lost him. What are you going to do out there?"
At the sound of his own name Summertown joined us.
"I'm going to learn American," he assured us. "Say, this is my fi'ist visit to the U-nited States. Gee! I reckon this is a bully place. Pleased to meet you, Miss Dainton. I say, Raney, what's the proper answer to that?"
"No mere European has ever discovered. Get it in first and then clear out while they're still feeling for their guns."
"You're a fat lot of use," Summertown retorted. "Here I'm going out to improve my mind. What's a 'cinch'? And this rotten American War of Independence I'm always up against—when'll it be over? I want to be a pukka Yank."