Page:The Other House (London, William Heinemann, 1896), Volume 2.djvu/21

Rh shouldn't have known. And of course I'm interested in knowing."

"But why is she interested in your doing so?" Jean asked.

Tony walked on again. "She has several reasons. One of them is that she greatly likes Paul and that, greatly liking him, she wishes the highest happiness conceivable for him. It occurred to her that as I greatly like a certain young lady I might not unnaturally desire for that young lady a corresponding chance, and that with a hint," laughed Tony, "that she really is about to have it, I might perhaps see my way to putting in a word for the dear boy in advance."

The girl strolled beside him, looking quietly before her. "How does she know," she demanded, "whom you 'greatly like'?"

The question pulled him up a little, but he resisted the impulse, constantly strong in him, to stop again and stand face to face with her. He continued to laugh and after an instant he replied: "Why, I suppose I must have told her."

"And how many persons will she have told?"

"I don't care how many," Tony said, "and I