You'll have a very pleasant time there; and
anyhow, it's too late to write and tell them you aren't coming."

"We could wire in the morning," she said. "Frank, do you think we ought
to go?"

He looked a little surprised, but answered readily, "Not if you don't
want to."

"But why not go?" their father repeated.

She hesitated. "Are you quite sure Andrew and Madge won't--won't try to
be unpleasant?"

"Let them try if they like!" laughed Heriot. "But I assure you, my dear
girl, I was so reasonable--so unanswerable, in fact--that they simply
can't feel annoyed for more than a few hours. Hang it, they are very
nice good people at heart. Just give 'em time to let the proper point of
view sink in, and they'll be chirpy as sparrows again. Besides, what
good could you do by staying at home? The Comyns have a nice place;
you'll have a capital time. I insist on your going."

"Very well, then," said Jean.

Yet she could hardly picture Andrew and her cousin quite as chirpy as
sparrows.

And all this time, beneath the very floor of the room where they
laughed, the plans of the coalition ripened.

CHAPTER VI

In the course of breakfast upon the following morning, Heriot startled
his junior partner by announcing his intention of putting in a strenuous
day's work at the office. Andrew exchanged a curious glance with Mrs.
Dunbar, and then merely inquired--

"When will you be back?"

"Four o'clock," said Heriot cheerfully. "Quite long enough hours for a
man of my age" (he smiled humorously at his son). "Of course there's
sure to be a lot of things to put right, and so on" (Andrew raised a
startled eye), "but I'll polish 'em off by four."

He ate a remarkably hearty breakfast and strode off blithely, this time
a few minutes ahead of his partner. It was an even more singular thing
that Andrew should linger to confer once more with the lady he had so
lately regarded as the impersonation of everything suspicious.

Another curious incident happened later in the day. At lunch-time the
junior partner left the office, and, without giving an explanation,
remained absent through the afternoon. Not that Heriot missed him. He
smoked and wrote and rallied Mr. Thomieson, and dictated letters which
left his confidential clerk divided between the extremes of admiration
for their shrewdness and horror at the terse and lively style in which
they were couched; in short, he got through a day's work that sent him
home at four o'cl