Didcott blinked.
"I have never read anything like it before," he answered.
"It is original," she admitted. "And isn't the hero lovely?"
"The hero?"
"Yes, Rupert Vavasour. 'Tall and pale, with eyes that flash.'"
"Oh, ah! Yes, indeed, he is lovely. He falls in love with—er—the heroine."
"Not at first. Afterwards. When they meet upon the lake. Isn't that a beautiful scene? I wept like anything when I wrote it."
"I felt the same way when I read it," Didcott murmured.
"Did you really?" cried Miss Winder, delightedly. "How charming of you. Father, Mr. Didcott likes my book tremendously."
The old man beamed with pleasure.