against her will."

"Oh, that's settled, is it?" Nick's eyes flashed over him with lightning
rapidity.

"It is." Max began to smile. "And the marriage will take place some time
before the end of next year."

The door opened abruptly while he was speaking, but he finished his
sentence with extreme deliberation in spite of the fact that it was Olga
who entered,--Olga, flushed and eager, vivid, throbbing with excitement.
If she heard his words she paid no heed to them, but broke at once into
breathless speech.

"Oh, Nick, it's the post! It's the post! A letter from Dad and another
from Muriel; both for you!"

Nick stretched out his hand to her. "Come over here, kiddie! We'll read
them together."

She sprang to him, knelt beside him, and warmly hugged him. Max remained
propped against the mantelpiece, looking on, ignored by both.

"Muriel's first!" commanded Nick; and, with hands that shook, Olga slit
open the envelope.

He put his arm about her shoulders as she withdrew the sheet and opened
it out. "Yes, you can read it too. I know what's in it, bless her
heart!"

So together they read the closely-written pages. There was silence in
the room as they did so, broken only by the crackling of the paper,
while Max Wyndham kept a motionless watch, his shaggy brows drawn close.

Suddenly Olga lifted her face. "Oh, Nick, isn't she a darling? I--I--it
makes me feel such a beast!"

Nick's hand pinched her cheek in answer. His lips twitched a little, but
he did not speak or raise his eyes.

She leaned her cheek against his shoulder. "I won't read any more, Nick.
It's too private. May I open Dad's?"

He took his wife's letter between his fingers and dexterously folded it.
"All right, Olga _mia!_ Let us hear the verdict of the great Dr. Jim!"

He glanced up at Max with the words and instantly looked away.

Olga had apparently forgotten his very existence. She opened her
father's letter still in quivering haste, and again there was a silence
of several seconds while they read.

It was broken in a fashion which not one of the three anticipated. Quite
suddenly Olga's lips began to quiver. She raised her head with the
agitated gesture of one straining for self-control; and then in a moment
the tears were running down her cheeks, and she covered her face and
sobbed.

"Kiddie! Kiddie!" remonstrated Nick.

But it was Max who stooped and swiftly lifted her, holding her against
his heart, stroking the fair hair with his