‘Of course I did, sir,’ answered Mr Golightly, looking up innocently in the other’s face. Then before Archie’s wrath had time to explode, he flung down his book and started laughingly to his feet. ‘Ridsdale, old chappie, how de do?’ he exclaimed. ‘Awfully glad to meet you. Don’t you know me?’
‘No, sir, I do not know you,’ answered Archie with a cold stare. ‘Never saw you before in my life, that I’m aware of.’
‘What! Not recollect Dick Dulcimer?’
‘Dick Dulcimer! You!’ eyeing him from top to toe. ‘It can’t be.’
‘But it is—at least I’ve every reason to believe so, and I think I ought to know.’
‘But’——, and again he eyed him critically over.
‘Why this thusness, you would ask. I’ll explain in a few words. But sit down for a minute or two; it’s too hot to stand.—You remember Bella Wynter?’
‘Rather. One of the prettiest girls out, the season before last. I was nearly a gone coon in that quarter myself.’
‘Well—I’m quite a gone coon.’
‘Glad to hear it. Congratulate you, old man.’