"Oh, has she?" said Lavender.
"Yes," said the lad with some surprise.
"You are lucky to be able to get her to leave the house," her husband said: "I can't."
Perhaps he had not tried so much as the words seemed to imply.
CHAPTER XVII.
GUESSES.
"Mr. Ingram," cried young Mosenberg, bursting into the room of his friend, "do you know that I have seen your princess from the island of the Atlantic? Yes, I met her yesterday, and I went up to the house, and I dined there and spent all the evening there."
Ingram was not surprised, nor, apparently, much interested. He was cutting open the leaves of a quarterly review, and a freshly-filled pipe lay on the table beside him. A fire had been lit, for the evenings were getting chill occasionally; the shutters were shut; there was some whisky on the table; so that this small apartment seemed to have its share of bachelors' comforts.
"Well," said Ingram quietly, "did you play for her?"