XX
Mr. Langham was consulted about everything. And it was to him that MaudDarling took Meredith's letter asking for accommodations.
"We've only two rooms left," she said, "and such nice people have come,or are coming, that it would be an awful pity if we had the bad luck tofill up with two men that weren't nice. Did you ever hear of a ColonelMeredith?"
"Is that his letter? May I look?"
Mr. Langham read the letter through very carefully. Then he said,looking at her over the tops of his thick glasses:
"I don't know if you know it, but I have made quite a study ofhandwritings. The writer of this letter is a gentleman--a Southerngentleman, if I am not mistaken. Accepting this premise, we may assumethat his friend Mr. Robert Middleton Jonstone is also a Southerngentleman. Middleton, in fact, is pure South Carolinian."
"But if they are from South Carolina, wouldn't our terms stagger them?I've always understood that Southern gentlemen lost all their money inthe war."
"Nevertheless," said Mr. Langham, "this is the writing of a rich man."
"How _can_ you know that?"
"I tell you that I have made a study of handwriting. It is also thewriting of a horse-loving, war-loving, much-travelled man--in the latetwenties."
"You will tell me next that he is about five feet ten inches tall, hasblue eyes, and is handsome as an angel."
"You take the words out of my mouth, Miss Maud."
"Tell me more." She was laughing now.
"He is very handsome, but not as angels are--his eyes are too bold androving. If he wasn't a good man he would be a very bad man. There was atime, even, when strong drink appealed to him. He is quixotically braveand generous. And I should by all means advise you to let him have hisaccommodations."
"I can never tell when you are joking."
"I was never more serious in my life. Shall I tell you something elsethat I have deduced?"
"Please."
"Well, then, he isn't married, Miss Maud, and he is a great catch!"
Miss Maud blushed a trifle.
"I don't know if you know it," she said, "but I have made a profoundstudy of palmistry. Will you lend me your hand a moment?"
"Very willingly. And I don't care if some one were to see us."
She studied his palm with great sternness.
"I read here," she said, "with regret, that you are an outrageous flirt.It seems also that you are something of a fraud."
"One more calumny," exclaimed Mr. Langham, "and I withdraw my hand witha gesture of supreme indignation."
But she held him very tightly by the fingers.
"And this little line," she cried, "tells me that you have known ColonelMeredith intimately for years and that you never studied handwriting inall your born days."
Mr. Langham began to chuckle all over.
"The next time," he said, "that people tell me you are easily imposedon, I shall deny it."
"You _do_ know him?"
He blinked and nodded like a wise owl.
"Shall I write or telegraph?"
"You will use your own judgment."
So she did both. She wrote out a telegram and sent it to Carrytown inthe _Streak_. And she tried to picture in her mind a young man whoshould look like an angel if his eyes weren't too bold and roving.
Her sisters and her brother all proclaimed that Maud was a reallysensible person. But none of them knew how really sensible she was.
She was, for instance, more interested in Colonel Meredith than in hiscousin Mr. Jonstone, and for the simple reason that she knew the one tobe rich and handsome and knew nothing whatever about the other.