"Well, we did have some good times together," Harrigan admitted, with a
glow in his heart. "And I guess after all that I'll go to the ball with
Molly. I don't mind teas like we had at the colonel's, but dinners and
balls I have drawn the line at. I'll take the plunge to-night. There's
always some place for a chap to smoke."
"At the Villa Rosa? I'll be there myself; and any time you are in doubt,
don't be afraid to question me."
"You're in class A," heartily. "But there's one thing that worries
me,--Nora. She's gone up so high, and she's such a wonderful girl, that
all the men in Christendom are hiking after her. And some of 'em.... Well,
Molly says it isn't good form to wallop a man over here. Why, she went on
her lonesome to India and Japan, with nobody but her maid; and never put
us hep until she landed in Bombay. The men out that way aren't the best.
East of Suez, you know. And that chap yesterday, Herr Rosen. Did you see
the way he hiked by me when I let him in? He took me to be the round
number before one. And he didn't speak a dozen words to any but Nora. Not
that I mind that; but it was something in the way he did it that scratched
me the wrong way. The man who thinks he's going to get Nora by walking
over me, has got a guess coming. Of course, it's meat and drink to Molly
to have sons of grand dukes and kings trailing around. She says it gives
tone."
"Isn't she afraid sometimes?"
"Afraid? I should say not! There's only three things that Molly's afraid
of these days: a spool of thread, a needle, and a button."
Courtlandt laughed frankly. "I really don't think you need worry about
Herr Rosen. He has gone, and he will not come back."
"Say! I'll bet a dollar it was you who shoo'd him off."
"Yes. But it was undoubtedly an impertinence on my part, and I'd rather
you would not disclose my officiousness to Miss Harrigan."
"Piffle! If you knew him you had a perfect right to pass him back his
ticket. Who was he?"
Courtlandt poked at the gravel with his cane.
"One of the big guns?"
Courtlandt nodded.
"So big that he couldn't have married my girl even if he loved her?"
"Yes. As big as that."
Harrigan riffled the leaves of his book. "What do you say to going down to
the hotel and having a game of bazzica, as they call billiards here?"
"Nothing would please me better," said Courtlandt, relieved that Harrigan
did not press him for further revelations.
"Nora is studying a new opera, and Molly-O is ragging the village
dressmaker. It's only half after ten, and we can whack 'em around until
noon. I warn you, I'm something of a shark."