CHAPTER VI


It will be remembered, perhaps, that an occasion has already occured
when Hal had cause to congratulate herself upon the possession of a
cousin, named Dick, who acted as an antidote to a brother who sometimes
resembled a great-aunt.

Dick, or to give him his full name, Richard Alastair Bruce, was indeed
her best friend and boon companion next to Lorraine. He was her
earliest playmate, and likewise her latest. For many months together
they had been companions in the wildest of wild escapades as children,
at Dick's country home; and now that they were both responsible members
of the community, in the world's greatest city, they were equally
attached.

If Hal was down on her luck, she telephoned Dick to come instantly to
the rescue, and if it was humanly possible he came. If Dick wanted a
sympathetic or gay companion, either to go out with him or to listen to
his latest inspirations, he telephoned to Hal, and little short of an
urgent, important engagement would delay her.

At the time he become of any importance in this narrative he was
established in a flat in the Cromwell Road, as one of a trio sometimes
known as the Three Graces. The other two were Harold St. Quintin and
Alymer Hermon.

The appellation was first given to them when they were freshmen at New
College, Oxford; partly because they were inseparable, partly because