"A very nice youth!" "Do you mean nice or nasty ?" I asked, inclined to bridle at his tone.
"Oh, anything but nasty," said Quinby.

"Only--well--perhaps a bit rapid for his years!" I stooped and put my name in the book before making any further remark.
Then I handed Quinby my cigarette-case, and we sat down on the nearest lounge.
"Rapid, is he ?" said I."That's quite interesting.

And how does it take him ?" "Oh, not in any way that's discreditable; but as a matter of fact, there's a gay young widow here, and they're fairly going it!" I lit my cigarette with a certain unexpected sense of downright satisfaction.

So there was something in it after all.

It had seemed such a fool's errand in the train.
"A young widow," I repeated, emphasising one of Quinby's epithets and ignoring the other.
"I mean, of course, she's a good deal older than Evers." "And her name ?" "A Mrs.Lascelles." I nodded.
"Do you happen to know anything about her, Captain Clephane ?" "I can't say I do." "No more does anybody else," said Quinby, "except that she's an Indian widow of sorts." "Indian!" I repeated with more interest.
Quinby looked at me.
"You've been out there yourself, perhaps ?" "It was there I knew Hamilton," said I, naming our common friend in the Engineers.
"Yet you're sure you never came across Mrs.Lascelles there ?" "India's a large place," I said, smiling as I shook my head.
"I wonder if Hamilton did," speculated Quinby aloud.
"And the Lascelleses," I added, "are another large clan." "Well," he went on, after a moment's further cogitation, "there's nobody here can place this particular Mrs.Lascelles; but there are some who say things which they can tell you themselves.