Lewisham doubted his eyes for a moment—but it was positively a smile, an essentially waggish smile.
"You've come back," he said quite cheerfully over Lewisham to Ethel. There was a hint of falsetto in his voice.
"She has called to see her mother," said Lewisham. "You, I believe, are Mr. Chaffery?"
"I would like to know who the Deuce you are?" said Chaffery, suddenly tilting his head back so as to look through his glasses instead of over them, and laughing genially. "For thorough-going Cheek, I'm inclined to think you take the Cake. Are you the Mr. Lewisham to whom this misguided girl refers in her letter?"
"I am."
"Maggie," said Mr. Chaffery to Mrs. Chaffery, "there is a class of being upon whom delicacy is lost—to whom delicacy is practically unknown. Has your daughter got her marriage lines?"
"Mr. Chaffery!" said Lewisham, and Mrs. Chaffery exclaimed, "James! How can you?"
Chaffery shut his penknife with a click and slipped it into his vest-pocket. Then he looked up again, speaking in the same equal voice. "I presume we are civilised persons prepared to manage our affairs in a civilised way. My stepdaughter vanishes for two nights and returns with an alleged
