and a lot of hair. Are you getting sentimental about her?”
Roger stretched out his legs. “I might, if she’d let me,” he said.
Dane assumed an air of solemnity. “Look here, old chap. None of that. You’ve got to be a moral husband and father, a pillar of society. The eye of the world is on you, Roger. And then there’s Lorrimer, isn’t there? And he has a belligerent set of shoulders. Not that that ever made any difference to a determined man.”
“They don’t act as if they were engaged.”
“That’s nothing. You never know what is between any man or woman.”
“I wonder why she came up here?”
“How should I know, my dear Roger? Is she any good on the paper?”
“By Jove, yes, she is.”
“Well, it is a well-edited little sheet, I can tell you that, and they’re improving the make-up every day, and they’ve got life into it, whichever of them is doing it. By the way, I seem to remember some tale about her, an adventure, running away from home or something like that, years ago, in a boat, with some boy.”
“Yes, she did, and Lorrimer was the boy. My wife was staying in Auckland at the time, and heard the story. It was ten years ago. I forget the details now. They did go in a boat, and I believe it was a week before they were found. And she looks now as if she’d just run away with anybody any minute. She’s the most independent girl—the women don’t like her. She won’t go to see anybody. She’s refused all invitations to dinner. What can you do with a girl like that?”
“Good Lord! Why try to do anything? Let her
