“Well, I should think we”—­how delightful to him that “we,” and how Miss Penny rejoiced in it!—­“could hold them at bay for that length of time.  The machinery of the law is slow and cumbersome at best, and in this case, I imagine, it would not be difficult to put a few additional spokes in its wheels.”

If his face was anything to go by there were many more questions he would have liked to put—­judicial questions, you understand, for a fuller comprehension of the case.  But he would not venture them yet.  He had got ample food for reflection for the moment, and his hopes stood high.

Never for him had there been a dinner equal to that one.  Better ones he had partaken of in plenty.  But the full board and the quality of the faring are not the only things, nor by any means the chief things, that go to the making of a feast.

The nearest approach to it had been that dinner with the Whitefriars, at which he first met Margaret Brandt, and that did not come within measurable distance of this one.

XII

“Will you be pleased to tek your dinner with the leddies again to-night?” asked Mrs. Carre, as she gave Graeme his breakfast next morning.

“I would be delighted,” he said doubtfully.  “But are you quite sure they would wish it, Mrs. Carre.”

“But you did get on all right with them,” she said, eyeing him wonderingly.  “They are very nice leddies, I am sure.”

“Oh, we got on first rate.  We didn’t quarrel over the food or fall out in any way.  But——­”

“Well then?”

“Will it be any easier for you?” he asked thoughtfully.

“Well, of course, it will be once setting instead of twice, and that iss easier——­”

“Then suppose you put it to them on that ground, Mrs. Carre, solely on that ground, you understand.  And if they are agreeable, I—­well, I shall not raise any objections.”

And so, presently, Mrs. Carre said to the ladies, “You did get on all right with the gentleman last night, yes?”

“Oh, quite, Mrs. Carre,” sparkled Miss Penny.

“I wass wondering if it would please you to dine all at once together again each night.  You see, it would save me the trouble of setting twice.  I did ask him and he said he didn’t mind if you didn’t.  He iss a very nice quiet gentleman, I am sure.”

“I’m sure it’s very good of him,” said Miss Penny.  “By all means serve us all at once together, Mrs. Carre.  I guess we can stand it if he can.”

“That iss all right then,” said Mrs. Carre, and the common evening meal became an institution—­to Graeme’s vast enjoyment.

XIII

When the girls went into their room after breakfast to put on their hats and scrambling shoes, they saw Graeme sitting on the low stone wall, as usual, smoking his after-breakfast pipe, and they caught a part of the conversation in progress between him and Johnny Vautrin.