Lucy glanced at the tea-gown.
"As you will have to tell the Professor that your brother is dead to
account for possessing the money," she said pointedly, "I should advise
you to go into mourning. Professor Braddock will be shocked otherwise."
"Dear me, what a tender heart he must have!" said Mrs. Jasher
flippantly. "My brother was very little to me, poor man, so he cannot
be anything to the Professor. However, I shall adopt your advice, and,
after all, black suits me very well. There"--she swept her hands across
the tea-table--"that is settled. Now about yourself?"
"Archie and I marry in the springtime."
"And your other admirer, who has come back?"
"Sir Frank Random?" said Lucy, coloring.
"Of course. He called to see me a day or so ago, and seems less
broken-hearted than he should be."
Lucy nodded and colored still deeper.
"I suppose some other woman has consoled him."
"Of course. Catch a modern man wearing the willow for any girl, however
dear. Are you angry?"
"Oh no, no."
"Oh yes, yes, I think," said the widow, laughing, "else you are no
woman, my dear. I know I should be angry to see a man get over his
rejection so rapidly."
"Who is she?" asked Lucy abruptly.
"Donna Inez de Gayangos."
"A Spaniard?"
"I believe so--a colonial Spaniard, at least--from Lima. Her father, Don
Pedro de Gayangos, met Sir Frank in Genoa by chance."
"Well?" demanded Lucy impatiently.
Mrs. Jasher shrugged her plump shoulders.
"Well, my dear, can't you put two and two together. Of course Sir Frank
fell in love with this dark-hued angel."
"Dark-hued! and I am light-haired. What a compliment!"
"Perhaps Sir Frank wanted a change. He played on white and lost, and
therefore stakes his money on black to win. That's the result of having
been at Monte Carlo. Besides, this young lady is rich, I understand, and
Sir Frank--so he told me--lost much more money at Monte Carlo than he
could afford. Well, you don't look pleased."
Lucy roused herself from a fit of abstraction.
"Oh yes, I am pleased, of course. I suppose, as any woman would, I felt
rather hurt for the moment in being forgotten so soon. But, after all,
I can't blame Sir Frank for consoling himself. If I am married first,
he shall dance at my wedding: if he is married first, I shall dance at
his."
"And you shall both dance at mine," said Mrs. Jasher. "Why, there is
quite an epidemic of matrimony. Well, Donna Inez arrives here with her
father in a day, or so. They stop at the Warrior Inn, I believe."
"That horrid place?"
"Oh, it is clean and respectable. Besides, Sir Frank can hardly ask
them to stop in the Fort, and I have no room in this bandbox of mine.
However, the two of them--Donna Inez and Frank, I mean--can come here
and flirt; so can you and Archie if you like."