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Mother and daughter greeted the two men enthusiastically, and at Lady Ranscomb's orders the waiter brought them small glasses of an aperitif. "We've been all day motoring up to the Col di Tenda. Sospel is lovely!" declared Dorise's mother. "Have you ever been there?" she asked of Brock, who was an habitue of the Riviera. "Once and only once. I motored from Nice across to Turin," was his reply.
He was in America five months altogether, I believe." The old man, still curled in his chair, smoked his cigar in silence. Apparently he was thinking deeply. "So Benton has induced you to go down to Shapley in order that you may be near his adopted daughter, in the hope that you will marry her! In the meantime you are deeply in love with Lady Ranscomb's daughter. I know her a truly charming girl.
Thereupon Howell took a cigar that his host offered him, and while he slowly lit it, The Sparrow crossed to the telephone. He quickly found Lady Ranscomb's number in the directory, and a few moments later was talking to the butler, of whom he inquired for Miss Dorise. "Tell her," he added, "that a friend of Mr. Henfrey's wishes to speak to her."
She had been alone with her mother after the last guest of a gay house-party had departed, when, unknown to Dorise, Lady Ranscomb had telegraphed to her friend George to "run up for a few days' fishing." Lady Ranscomb's scheme was to throw the pair into each other's society as much as possible.
"Oh! not at all," replied the girl, sealing a letter which she had just written. "Mother has gone to Warwickshire, and I'm going out to lunch with May Petheridge, an old schoolfellow of mine." "Oh! Then I won't keep you," said the smug lover of Lady Ranscomb's choice.
If I know them then my hand will be strengthened." "Meanwhile you love Lady Ranscomb's daughter, you say?" "Yes. I love Dorise with all my heart. She, of course, knows nothing of the conditions of the will." There was a silence of some moments, interrupted only by the pop-pop of the pigeon-shots below.
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