"Ban; there's something I've been waiting to tell you. Tertius Marrineal wants to marry me." "I've suspected as much. That would settle the obnoxious critic, wouldn't it! Though it's rather a roundabout way." "Ban! You're beastly." "Yes; I apologize," he replied quickly. "But have I got to revise my estimate of you, Betty? I should hate to." "Your estimate? Oh, as to purchasability.

"There isn't any doubt about his purchasability. But I confess I don't quite see how you will go about it." "Never mind that part of it; just leave the ways and means with those of us who have riper experience and fewer hamperings, perhaps than you have. Your share in it is to tell us how big a bid we must make. As I say, you know the man." David Kent was silent for the striding of half a square.