'I always take what I can get,' he returned, mockingly; whereon she
shivered, and Calton saw it.
'Ah!' said that astute reader of character to himself, 'there's
something between those two. 'Gad! I'll cross-examine my French
friend.'
They said good-night to the ladies, and walked to the St Kilda
station, from thence took the train to town, and Calton put into
force his cross-examination. He might as well have tried his artful
questions on a rock as on Vandeloup, for that clever young gentleman
saw through the barrister at once, and baffled him at every turn
with his epigrammatic answers and consummate coolness.
'I confess,' said Calton, when they said good-night to one another,
'I confess you puzzle me.'
'Language,' observed M. Vandeloup, with a smile, 'was given to us to
conceal our thoughts. Good night!'
And they parted.
'The comedy is over for the night,' thought Gaston as he walked
along, 'and it was so true to nature that the spectators never
thought it was art.'
He was wrong, for Calton did.
CHAPTER IX
A PROFESSIONAL PHILANTHROPIST
We have professional diners-out, professional beauties, professional
Christians, then why not professional philanthropists? This
brilliant century of ours has nothing to do with the word charity,
as it savours too much of stealthy benevolence, so it has
substituted in its place the long word philanthropy, which is much
more genteel and comprehensive.
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