"Good-afternoon, Jimmy," cried Carrissima, rising promptly from her chair. "How nice and surprising of you to come!"
"I'll tell the truth if I perish," he answered. "The fact is I was sent. I'm a special messenger."
"Then Sybil is at home!"
"She turned up last night," he explained. "The world has naturally stood still during her absence, and she hasn't a moment to spare for the ordinary pleasures of life. Moral, will you look her up to-morrow?"
Jimmy then turned to Mrs. Reynolds, who was sitting with a deprecatory expression on her face, while Colonel Faversham, seeing an opportunity to cross the room to Bridget, gripped the arms of his chair preparatory to rising.
"Ah, Jimmy!" he said. "I'm glad to see you!"
"Yes, but please don't get up, colonel," returned Jimmy, looking sympathetically at his host's leg. "A little stiff at the joint? Rheumatism, I suppose?"
"Nothing of the sort," said Colonel Faversham, wincing, as he stood erect. "I never felt better in my life."
"In fact," suggested Carrissima, "father has a growing pain."
"I have not any pain in my body," cried the colonel, devoutly wishing he had not. "I will walk you twenty miles any day you like."