All the
same, she wondered that he should desire to marry an iceberg, and
Donna Inez, with her silent tongue and cold smiles, was little
else. However, as Frank Random was the chief party concerned in
the love-making--for Donna Inez was merely passive--there was
no more to be said.
Sometimes Hope came to dine at the Pyramids, and on these
occasions Mrs. Jasher was present in her character of chaperon.
As Miss Kendal was helping the widow to marry Professor Braddock,
she in her turn did her best to speed Archie's wooing. Certainly
the young couple were engaged and there was no understanding to
be brought about. Nevertheless, Mrs. Jasher was a useful article
of furniture to be in the room when they were together, for
Gartley, like all English villages, was filled with
scandalmongers, who would have talked, had Hope and Lucy not
employed Mrs. Jasher as gooseberry. Sometimes Donna Inez came
with the widow, while her father was hunting for the mummy in
Pierside, and then Sir Frank Random would be sure to put in an
appearance to woo his Dulcinea in admiring silence. Mrs. Jasher
declared that the two must have made love by telepathy, for they
rarely exchanged a word. But this was all the better, as Archie
and Lucy chattered a great deal, and two pair of magpies--Mrs.
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