Page:Hard-pan; a story of bonanza fortunes (IA hardpanbonanza00bonnrich).pdf/17

Rh "I don't know whether that's meant to be a compliment," he said, with the lazy smile with which he generally treated Letitia's sallies. "Have I got a larger collection of freaks than most people?"

"What did you hear about Colonel Reed's daughter?" asked Maud Gault.

"Really, I don't recollect anything in particular," he said; "probably just what Letitia heard—that she was pretty and lived somewhere across town."

"If a man 's going to remember everything he hears about girls that are pretty and live somewhere across town, he 'd have to get Professor What's-his-name's Memory System down by heart," said Mortimer, pushing back his chair. "Come, Maud, you don't want to sit here all night, do you?"

They rose, and together, the rustling ladies first, passed through the intervening hall into the drawing-room beyond. It was a warm, glossy, much-upholstered room, with an appearance of overcrowded cheeriness. Lamps casting halos of mellow light through beruffled silk shades like huge primeval flowers, glowed from the corners and sent glistening rays along the leaves of tropical plants. The ornaments disposed upon the tables and mantel-shelves were numerous and interesting enough to have claimed an afternoon's careful attention. There