"I do not think he is a lump of ice," said Keith, firmly.
Wickersham did not answer at first, then he said sharply:
"Well, she's worth a thousand of him. She married him for his money. Certainly not for his brains."
"Norman has brains--as much as any one I know," defended Keith.
"You think so!"
Keith remembered a certain five minutes out behind the stables at Elphinstone.
He wanted to ask Wickersham about another girl who was uppermost in his thoughts, but something restrained him. He could not bear to hear her name on his lips. By a curious coincidence, Wickersham suddenly said: "You used to teach at old Rawson's. Did you ever meet a girl named Yorke--Alice Yorke? She was down this way once."
Keith said that he had met "Miss Yorke." He had met her at Ridgely Springs and also in New York. He was glad that it was dark, and that Wickersham could not see his face. "A very pretty girl," he hazarded as a leader, now that the subject was broached.
"Yes, rather. Going abroad--title-hunting."
"I don't expect Miss Yorke cares about a title," said Keith, stiffly.