"Go on, Jack—talk away; and I'll give you good advice."
He did talk away! What says Solomon? "Ointment and perfume rejoice the soul; so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel." The Wise Man might have expressed himself more clearly, but his meaning can be made out.
Meantime Lawrence Colquhoun, pulling himself together after Jack went away, remembered that he had not once gone near his ward since he drove her to Twickenham.
"It is too bad," said Conscience; "a whole month."
"It is all that woman's fault," he pleaded. "I have been dangling about, in obedience to her, like a fool."
"Like a fool!" echoed Conscience.
He went that very day, and was easily persuaded to stay and dine with the two ladies.
He said very little, but Agatha observed him watching his ward closely.
After dinner she got a chance.
It was a pleasant evening, early in June. They had strawberries on a garden table. Phillis presently grew tired of sitting under the shade, and strolled down to the river-side, where she sat on the grass and threw biscuits to the swans.