"This was an exception to prove the rule." "So you put down--and she never paid up." "Youth is forgetful, and of course--you can't dun a lady." "No--you can't dun a _lady_!" "Look here!" cried Stanley. "I won't stand that sort of thing!" "Beg your pardon, I was thinking aloud, beastly bad habit, purely reminiscent, I assure you. Go on." "Well, of course I saw something of her after that. Aunt invited me to call, also to dine." "What about that trip down the Thames?" "Why, I'd arranged my party for that before I met Belle--I mean Miss Fitzgerald." "Oh, call her Belle, I know you do." "And she happened to mention, quite accidentally, that one of her unaccomplished ideals was a trip down the Thames. I fear she's shockingly cramped for money you know, so as I happened to have a vacant place----" "You naturally invited her-- I wonder how she found out there was a vacant place," mused Kent-Lauriston. "My dear fellow," reiterated Stanley. "I tell you she didn't even know I was getting it up. Of course if she had, she'd never have spoken of it. Miss Fitzgerald is far above touting for an invitation." "Of course. Well you must have advanced considerably in your acquaintance during the trip. Had her quite to yourself, as it were, since I suppose she knew none of the party." "Oh, but she did. She knew Lieutenant Kingsland." "To be sure. He was the man who wagered her a dozen dozen pairs of gloves that she wouldn't swim her horse across the Serpentine in Hyde Park." "And she won, by Jove! I can tell you she has pluck." "And they were both arrested in consequence. I think the Lieutenant owed her some reparation, and I must say a trip down the Thames was most _à propos_." "Look here, Kent-Lauriston, if you're insinuating that Kingsland put her up to----" "Far from it, my boy, how could I insinuate anything so unlikely? Well, what other unattainable luxuries did you bestow?" "Nothing more to speak of--why, yes. Do you know the poor little thing had never seen Irving, or been inside the Lyceum?" "So you gave the 'poor little thing' a box party, and a champagne supper at the Savoy afterwards, I'll be bound, and yet surely it was at the Lyceum that----" "What?" "Oh, nothing, I was becoming reminiscent once more; it's a bad habit. Let's have the rest of it." "There isn't much more to tell. I've ridden with her sometimes in the Park. Given her a dinner at the Wellington, a few teas at the Hyde Park Club. I think that's all--flowers perhaps, nothing in the least compromising." "Compromising! Why, it's enough to have married you to three English girls." "She's Irish." "I beg her pardon," and Kent-Lauriston bowed in mock humility. "What do you think of my case, honestly?" "Honestly, I think she means to have you, and if I was a betting man, I'd lay the odds on her chances of winning."