I suppose you know how
he stands."

Wallace was conscious of an acute wish that they had not turned up until
he'd had a chance to see Mary, but somehow he felt he couldn't go behind
an assurance like that. So he told them what he had pieced together.

Rush grunted and blushed and said he'd be damned, but it was not a
theme--this contention between his father and his stepmother--that he
could dwell upon. He got hold at last of something that he could be
articulate about, and demanded to know why, in these circumstances, Mary
hadn't come straight to them at Hickory Hill instead of camping out, for
the night, all by herself in the Dearborn Avenue house.

"She has an idea she must find a job for herself," Wallace said, feeling
awkwardly guilty as if he had betrayed her; but the way Rush leaped upon
him, demanding in one breath what the deuce he meant and what sort of job
he was talking about, made it impossible to pull up.

He recounted the request Mary had made of him, concerning his sister in
Omaha, and, last of all, stated his own misgiving--nothing but the merest
guess of course--that she had been putting in this day answering
advertisements. "She said she'd give me a picnic tea at five-thirty and
tell me what she'd been doing."

"Well, it'll be no picnic for her," Rush exploded angrily. "I'll see her
at five-thirty myself. She must be plumb out of her head if she thinks
she'll be allowed to do a thing like that."

Once more, before Wallace could speak, it was Graham who intervened. "I
want you to leave this to me," he said gravely. "I don't know whether I
can settle it or not, but I'd like to try." He turned to Wallace.
"Would you mind, sir, letting me go to tea with her at half past five
in your place?"

It is possible that, but for Wallace's day-dream of himself offering
Mary the shelter and the care she so obviously needed, he might have
persisted in seeing her first and assuring her that he was to be
regarded as an ally whatever she decided to do. Her voice as she had
said, "I know I can never marry Graham" echoed forlornly in his mind's
ear. But a doubt faint and vague as it was, of his own disinterestedness
held him back. Graham was young; he was in love with her. That gave him
right of way, didn't it?

So he assented. It was agreed that Rush should dine with Wallace at his
apartment. Graham, if he had any news for them should communicate it by
telephone. Instantly!

CHAPTER XXII

THE FUNDAMEN