"Good gracious on me! Captain Dacres," she said, "what a time it is
since I've seen you, to be sure; I took it for granted you were dead."
"Dead!" repeated Nick Walcot. "Why he's married; didn't you know?"
"Oh, it's about the same to me," laughed the lady, and then tilting
herself back in her chair so that her voice might reach the further room
more easily, she called, "Doady I say, come in here--there's a surprise
for you."
And in answer to the summons a young lady appeared, who threw herself
into a dramatic attitude exclaiming, "What! Captain Dacres? Well I
never! Why--who'd a thought of seeing you?"
Certainly it was not Captain Dacres who had anticipated that pleasure,
for while responding with the best grace he could command to the chaff
and banter which began to be darted at him, he was consigning Miss
Fisher, and more especially the effusive Doady, to every depth between
this world and the one below.
The announcement of luncheon opened a more cheerful vista. "Here I am,
and I must make the best of it," thought Rowley following, in company
with Doady, Nick Walcot and Miss Fisher. "But if ever anything of the
sort happens again may I be tarred and feathered. To think I ever
thought this woman pretty, and to fancy that to this day Nina is jealous
of her."
The luncheon, commenced at an unusually late hour, took a long time
getting through; the two ladies were excellent company, and
notwithstanding the invectives he had indulged in, five o'clock struck
very quickly.
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