"Please," she said, "please! You're making me feel the most dreadful humbug and impostor!" She turned to Colin. "Do tell them the truth, Doctor Gray."
"I'm only waiting for the chance," said Colin.
With a good-natured chuckle Mark placed his pipe on the mantelpiece, and pulled up a couple of chairs to the table.
"Fire ahead, my lad," he observed. "That's to say, if you can eat crumpets and talk intelligibly at the same time."
Spurred on by this encouragement, Colin set about his task with obvious relish. He was a good hand at telling a story, and under his eloquent treatment the slightly unusual circumstances which had attended his first introduction to Nancy lost nothing in dramatic freshness. Retailed, indeed, amid the chink of tea-cups and the pleasant crackling of the wood fire, they seemed to appear more romantic than ever, and both Mark and Mary listened to him with a fascinated interest which showed itself plainly in their faces.
Having described the capture of "Ginger Dick" and done full justice to the spirited behaviour of Nancy during the operations, he went on to relate how he had walked back with her to the studio, and had been admitted into the secret of her profession.
"Of course," he finished, "directly I heard that I knew where I was. You'd asked me to find you a resourceful angel, and here she was fluttering round Chelsea wasting her life typing out bad stories! The whole thing was evidently a put-up job on the part of Providence."
"It seems to be like a direct answer to prayer," said Mark, with considerable enthusiasm. "I can hardly believe it even now."
Mary leaned across and began refilling Nancy's cup. "My dear," she begged, "please say that it's true. You can't imagine how it will relieve our feelings. If Colin has been misrepresenting the situation I shall burst into floods of tears."
"I am afraid he has," declared Nancy, laughing, "but only with regard to my qualifications. If I really thought that I could be of any use to you, there's nothing I should like better than to come and work here."