‘He’s awfully amusing,’ Marian said with a slight smile.—‘And I suppose you rather liked Mr Noel, too, didn’t you, Nora?’ Nora shook her head energetically. ‘No, my dear; not my sort of man at all, really. I certainly wasn’t in the least taken with him.’ ‘Not a little bit even, Nora?’ ‘Not even a little bit, dear,’ she answered decidedly. ‘He isn’t at all the sort of man I should ever care for. Too dark for me, by several shades, for one thing, Marian. You know, we West Indians never can endure these very dark people.’ ‘But I’m dark, Nora, and you like me, you know, don’t you?’ ‘Oh, you. Yes; that’s quite another thing, Marian. That’s nothing, to be dark as you are. Your hair and eyes and complexion are just perfect, darling. But Mr Noel—well, he’s a shade or two too dark for me, anyhow; and I don’t mind saying so to you candidly.—Mr Hawthorn’s a great deal more my ideal of what a handsome man ought to be. I think his eyes, his hair, and his moustache are just simply lovely, Marian.’ ‘Why, of course, you and he ought to be friends,’ Marian said, a natural thought flashing suddenly across her. ‘He comes from Trinidad, just the same as you do. How funny that the two people I’ve liked best in all the world should both come from the very same little bit of an island. I daresay you used to know some of his people.’ ‘That’s the very funniest part of it all, Marian. I can’t recollect anything at all about his family; I don’t even remember ever to have heard of them from any Trinidad people.’ Marian looked up quickly from the needlework on which she was employed, and said simply: ‘I daresay they didn’t happen to know your family.’ ‘Well, that’s just what’s odd about it, dear,’ Nora continued, pulling out her crochet. ‘Everybody in Trinidad knows my family. And Mr Hawthorn’s father’s in the Legislative Council, too, just like papa; and Mr Hawthorn has been to Cambridge, you know, and is a barrister, and knows Arabic, and is unusually clever, Mr Noel tells me. I can’t imagine how on earth it is I’ve never even heard of him before.’ ‘Well, at anyrate, I’m so awfully glad you really like him, now that you’ve actually seen him, Nora. One’s always so afraid that all one’s friends won’t like one’s future husband.’ ‘Like him, dear; how on earth could one help liking him? Why, I think he’s simply delightful And that’s so surprising, too, because generally, you know, one’s friends _will_ go and marry such regular horrid sticks of men. I think he’s the nicest man I’ve ever met anywhere, almost.’ ‘And the exception is——?’ ‘Put in for propriety’s sake, dear, for fear you should think I was quite too enthusiastic. And do you know, he tells me he’s going in for a judgeship in Trinidad; and won’t it be splendid, Marian, if he happens to get it, and you both go out there with me, darling? I shall be just too delighted.’