Dick Claiborne was engrossed with a vivacious California girl, and Shirley saw him only at meals; but he and Armitage held night sessions in the smoking-room, with increased liking on both sides.
"Armitage isn't a bad sort," Dick admitted to Shirley.

"He's either an awful liar, or he's seen a lot of the world." "Of course, he has to travel to sell his glassware," observed Shirley.
"I'm surprised at your seeming intimacy with a mere 'peddler,'-- and you an officer in the finest cavalry in the world." "Well, if he's a peddler he's a high-class one--probably the junior member of the firm that owns the works." Armitage saw something of all the Claibornes every day in the pleasant intimacy of ship life, and Hilton Claiborne found the young man an interesting talker.

Judge Claiborne is, as every one knows, the best-posted American of his time in diplomatic history; and when they were together Armitage suggested topics that were well calculated to awaken the old lawyer's interest.
"The glass-blower's a deep one, all right," remarked Dick to Shirley.

"He jollies me occasionally, just to show there's no hard feeling; then he jollies the governor; and when I saw our mother footing it on his arm this afternoon I almost fell in a faint.

I wish you'd hold on to him tight till we're docked.