Frost had commenced in a bantering mood, but now and again his voice would take a more serious tone.
"Joking apart, Miss Bell is charming. She is, thanks to God, a being out of the ordinary. She has a style unstinted and all her own. I have upon several occasions made myself agreeable, partly for my own gratification and partly because I saw in her eyes that she admired me."
Frost leaned back in intended mock conceit, no small portion of which appeared genuine.
Robert gave way to laughter, in which just a tinge of annoyance might have been detected.
"She is quite accustomed to these attentions, for all her life adoration has been her daily bread."
"I should like to know how you are so well posted?" asked Frost, with a dark flash in his grey eyes.
Robert Milburn lifted his head proudly, and answered quietly: "I have known her since she was a little slip of a lass."
"And how did the meeting come about? you were brought up in Maryland, I believe."
"True, but in the early '80s I spent one spring and summer South. I was at 'Ashland.' You know that is the old home of Henry Clay. It is about in the center of the region of blue grass,
