The hall of Siege House was littered with wrappings and twine, in the midst of which stood Delia Calmour, in a fervour of delight and admiration, while her brother Bob extracted from its crate a brand new bicycle which had just been delivered by railway van. "Rather! Gee and Vincent, tip-top maker," pronounced the said Bob, wheeling her machine clear of the litter and surveying it critically. "You're in luck's way this time, Delia. First chop new bike for a beginning, and now what about the damages? I'm only wondering whether five hundred would be starting too low." "Damages! What are you talking about?" said Delia shortly. "Why, you got a toss, didn't you--a bad one too--and owing to Wagram's wild beast. There you are. First-rate grounds for action. Damages a dead cert. The only question is how much." "Oh Bob, don't be such a beastly young cad," retorted Delia, with a heightened colour and a flash in her eyes, plain speaking being the custom at Siege House. "But then I forgot," she continued, coldly ironical. "It's your trade to scent out plunder, or will be when you've learnt it. Good boy, Bob. Stick to biz, and never miss a chance." The point of which remark was that its object was in the employ of a firm of solicitors. Incidentally, he was a loose hung, pale faced youth, who was won't to turn on an exaggerated raffishness out of office hours, under the impression that it was sporting. "I should think not," retorted Bob angrily. "And I don't see any sense in jumping down my throat because I want to do you a good turn." "What are you kicking up such a row about Bob, and how the devil am I going to get through my typing in the middle of all this jaw?" The above, uttered in a sweet and fluty voice, proceeded from an exceedingly handsome girl who now appeared from an adjoining door. She had straight regular features of the classical order, and a pair of large limpid blue eyes, the soulful innocence of whose expression imparted an air of spirituality to the whole face. Yet never was expression more entirely deceptive. "Oh, keep your hair on, Clytie. I'm only telling Delia how to get five hundred damages out of Wagram. You'd never have got your cool thou, out of Vance if it hadn't been for me. It's her turn now," sneered Bob. "You mean I'd never have got what your precious firm chose to pass on to me out of it," retorted the girl serenely. Her brother grinned. "Biz is biz and costs are costs. We don't want work for nothing in the law," he added. "We! M'yes. Grandiloquent, very. So that's the new bike?" going over to examine it. "It is a ripper. D'you think there are any more African wild beasts loose at Hilversea, Delia? I could do with a new bike myself."