"Don't be so silly. Naturally he isn't very lively being so old." "Old! He is lively enough to carry me downstairs as though I were a pillow and wheel me for hours at a time in that glorious chariot he got for me! And he is old enough--but what is the good of talking to you, Evie?" Presently her irritation passed and she laughed. "Tell me the news of the great world, Evie; what startling happenings have there been in Knightsbridge?" "I can tell you something about Mr. Sault you don't know," Evie was piqued into saying. "He has been in prison." Christina turned on her side with a wince of pain. "Say that again." "He has been in prison." A long pause. "I hoped he had," Christina said at last. "I believe in imprisonment as an essential part of a man's education--who told you?" "I'm not going to say." "Ronald Morelle--aha!" She pointed an accusing finger at the dumbfounded Evie. "I know your guilty secret! The 'Ronnie' you babble about in your sleep is Ronnie Morelle!" "Wh--what makes you--it isn't true--it is a damned lie--!" "Don't be profane, Evie. That is the worst of druggists' shops, you pick up such awful language. Mother says you can't work amongst pills without getting ideas in your head." "I never talk in my sleep--and I don't know Ronnie Morelle--who is he?" Evie's ignorance was badly assumed. Christina became very thoughtful. She lay with her hand under her cheek, her gray eyes searching her sister's face. "Would Ronnie be impressed by your distant relationship with nobility?" she asked quietly. "Would it make such an awful difference if he knew about the coat of arms in father's Bible? I don't think it would. If it did, he isn't worth worrying about. What is he?" "Didn't Mr. Sault tell you?" asked Evie hotly. "He seems to spend his time gossiping about people who are a million times better than him--" "Than he," murmured Christina, her eyes closed. "He is a nasty scandal-mongering old man! I hate him!" "He didn't say that Ronnie had been in prison," Christina's voice was gentle. "All that he said was that the only 'Ronnie' he knew was Ronald Morelle. He did not even describe him or give him a character." "How absurd, Christina! As if old Sault could give Mr. Morelle 'a character'! One is a gentleman and the other is an old fossil!" "Old age is honorable," said Christina tolerantly, "the arrogance of you babies!" "You're half in love with him!"