"Which one--Edith?--that is, Lady Cressage?"
he enquired. "Of course--it would have been her."
Thorpe nodded. "She made a tremendous impression upon me,"
he observed, watching the father with intentness as he let
the slow words fall.
"Well she might, "the other replied, simply. "She's supposed
to be the most beautiful woman in England."
"Well--I guess she is," Thorpe assented, while the two
men eyed each other.
"Is the third sister unmarried?" it occurred to him to ask.
The tone of the question revealed its perfunctory character.
"Oh--Beatrice--she's of no importance," the father replied.
"She goes in for writing, and all that--she's not a beauty,
you know--she lives with an old lady in Scotland.
The oldest daughter--Blanche--she has some good looks of
her own, but she's a cat. And so you met Edith! May I ask
where it was?"
"At Hadlow House--Lord Plowden's place, you know."
The General's surprise at the announcement was undoubted.
"At Plowden's!" he repeated, and added, as if half to himself,
"I thought that was all over with, long ago."
"I wish you'd tell me about it," said Thorpe, daringly.
"I've made it plain to you, haven't I? I'm going
to look out for you. And I want you to post me up,
here, on some of the things that I don't understand.
You remember that it was Plowden who introduced you to me,
don't you? It was through him that you got on the Board.
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