“Is that really a fact?” inquired Miss Maitland. The very queer thing about it all was that he came in on the afternoon of the very second day I was there. I was having an argument about a halfpenny with a lady sending a telegram, and she said that she always understood we were well paid, and if that was true we ought not to try to make anything extra. I kept my temper, but I daresay I managed to say what I wanted to say—I generally do—and eventually she took the telegram back and decided to take a cab to Charing Cross and send it from there. “Shilling’sworth of your best stamps,” he requested; “I want them to match my necktie.” “Pennies or halfpennies?” I asked. You can understand I wasn’t in the mood for nonsense just then. “Which are most fashionable just now, miss? I don’t want to look odd or conspicuous.” “You’ll do that in any case. Kindly say what you want.” “Perhaps I’ll try sixpennyworth of each,” he said. I tore them off and pushed them underneath the trellis. “Are these absolutely fresh? I may not be cooking them at once, you see. They’ll be all right, I suppose, if I keep them on ice?” “You may as well put your head there at the same time,” I said. The other girls on my side of the counter looked around, and Miss Maitland gave a cough. “Heavens!” he said, putting on a deep voice, “how I adore the fair creature! Ere yonder sun sinks to its rest she must, she shall, be mine.” I glanced up at him, prepared to give him such a haughty look, but I found he was a good-tempered-looking young fellow with his straw hat tipped to the back of his head, and somehow I couldn’t manage my cold stare quite so well as usual. Two or three people entered through the swing doors at that moment and came straight to my part of the counter. “Very well then,” he said loudly, “that’s arranged. Outside the British Museum Tube Station half-past eight to-night. Mind, I shan’t wait more than ten minutes.” The fuss Miss Maitland made just because I’d answered him back! I had a good mind to say something about old maids, but I stopped it just in time; instead I thought it the best plan to say he was a great friend of my brother’s and that he was one of those peculiar young gentlemen who had the impression that he ought to keep up his reputation for being comic. “If he comes in again,” said Miss Maitland, “call me, and I’ll show you how to deal with him.”