Mr. Spence's delight at this sally was so unrestrained as to cause the couple ahead to turn. The Vicomte's expression was reproachful.
"Where's Susan?" asked Mrs. Holt.
"I think she must have gone in the house," Honora answered.
"You two seem to be having a very good time."
"Oh, we're hitting it off fairly well," said Mr. Spence, no doubt for the benefit of the Vicomte. And he added in a confidential tone, "Aren't we?"
"Not on the subject of the Vicomte," she replied promptly. "I like him. I like French people."
"What!" he exclaimed, halting in his steps, "you don't take that man seriously?"
"I haven't known him long enough to take him seriously," said Honora.
"There's a blindness about women," he declared, "that's incomprehensible.
They'll invest in almost any old thing if the certificates are
beautifully engraved. If you were a man, you wouldn't trust that
Frenchman to give you change for five dollars."
"French people," proclaimed Honora, "have a light touch of which we
Americans are incapable. We do not know how to relax."