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He might have
been sitting with an elder sister just then, eating strawberries and
cream and watching a tennis match on some shady green lawn. He was
happy; happier still when Angelina once more floated into his ken and,
noticing Miss Wilberforce, raised her eyebrows mischievously and gave
him something that looked like a real smile, for a change.
She had another smile, however, for Mr. Edgar Marten; and yet another
one for Don Francesco who, as she passed near him, profited by the
occasion to give her a paternal semi-proprietary chuck under the chin,
accompanying the indecorous movement with an almost audible wink.
Mr. Heard had noticed everything. He frowned at first. It gave him a
little twinge, and some food for thought. He was absurdly sensitive
about women.
"A frolicsome child," he mused. "LASCIVA PUELLA. Possibly wanton."
What were this young man's relations with the girl? That contact of
hand and chin--what did it imply? Was the action quasi-paternal, or
pseudo-paternal? Regretfully he decided that it was only
pseudo-paternal.


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