"The pain!" he exclaimed, and threw back his head and gave way to a fit of laughter. "By the mass! your politeness drowns me. But I like you, Richard, as I have said more than once. I believe your brutal straight-dealing has more to do with my predilection than aught else. For I have seen a deal of rogues in my day."
"And they have seen a deal of you, Mr. Allen."
"So they have," he cried, and laughed the more. "Egad, Miss Dorothy, you have saved all of him, I think." Then he swung round upon me, very careless. "Has your Uncle Grafton called to express his sympathies, Richard?" he asked.
That name brought a cry out of my head, Dolly seizing the arm of her chair.
"Grafton Carvel in London?" I exclaimed.
"Ay, in very pretty lodgings in Jermyn Street, for he has put by enough,
I'll warrant you, despite the loss of his lands. Your aunt is with him,
and his dutiful son, Philip, now broken of his rank in the English army.
They arrived, before yesterday, from New York."
"And to what is this an introduction?" I demanded.
"I merely thought it strange," said Mr. Allen, imperturbably, "that he had not called to inquire after his nephew's health."
Dolly was staring at him, with eyes wide open.
"And pray, how did he discover I was in London, sir?" I said. "I was about to ask how you knew of it, but that is one and the same thing."