"Who is your little friend?" asked Ratcliffe.
Mrs. Lee rather vaguely replied that she was the daughter of that
pretty woman in black; she believed her name was Baker.
"Baker, did you say?" repeated Ratcliffe.
"Baker--Mrs. Sam Baker; at least so Mr. Carrington told me; he
said she was a client of his."
In fact Ratcliffe soon saw Carrington go up to her and remain by
her side during the rest of the trip. Ratcliffe watched them sharply
and grew more and more absorbed in his own thoughts as the boat
drew nearer and nearer the shore.
Carrington was in high spirits. He thought he had played his cards
with unusual success. Even Miss Dare deigned to acknowledge his
charms that day.
She declared herself to be the moral image of Martha Washington,
and she started a discussion whether Carrington or Lord Dunbeg
would best suit her in the r?le of the General.
"Mr. Carrington is exemplary," she said, "but oh, what joy to be
Martha Washington and a Countess too!"
Chapter VII
WHEN he reached his rooms that afternoon, Senator Ratcliffe
found there, as he expected, a choice company of friends and
admirers, who had beguiled their leisure hours since noon by
cursing him in every variety of profane language that experience
could suggest and impatience stimulate. On his part, had he
consulted his own feelings only, he would then and there have
turned them out, and locked the doors behind them. So far as silent
maledictions were concerned, no profanity of theirs could hold its
own against the intensity and deliberation with which, as he found
himself approaching his own door, he expressed between his teeth
his views in respect to their eternal interests.
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