, and Larry with all his faults is a
gentleman. He even has a chivalrous vein which, though lying deep under
selfishness, crops up near the surface occasionally. I wish he'd been
chivalrous with his daughter, while there was time for it to do good,
instead of at the last moment with this silly middle-aged woman who
wants to get "into society" through him.

Oh, just one other thing which I nearly forgot to mention! At my urgent
suggestion Jack wrote a line to Peter Storm, in care of a man named
James Strickland, said by Caspian to have looked after the interests of
a family with whom Peter is connected. He's a well-known lawyer, so we
easily found his address in the New York directory. He has his office
there, of course, though I believe he has a house somewhere on Long
Island, I don't know where. There's just the merest chance that Peter
Storm may go to him in New York. He's going to _some_ lawyer, so why not
Strickland? Anyhow, we have no other means of getting at this extremely
Stormy Petrel until his return. May it not be put off too long!

Jack, like all other men, hated to interfere, for P. S. has never spoken
to either of us, in so many words, of his "intentions" toward Patty
Moore. But I cooked up a specious-sounding note, saying that, if Peter
didn't want Caspian to complicate matters for everybody, he had better
hurry up and come back before C---- was actually _married_.

That letter went off by special delivery this morning.

Au revoir, till I can give you the sequel!

Your battered but not yet broken

MOLLY.

XXXII

MOLLY WINSTON TO MERCEDES LANE

_Awepesha._

MERCEDES MINE:

Hurrah! There's a thing I may tell you without giving away Peter's
confidences till the cat's ready to jump from the bag.

Jack and I were restless last evening. When I finished my letter to you,
it was only half-past ten; and I felt as if I could jump up and down and
scream.

"If I don't do _something_, I shall have a conniption fit!" I
threatened.

Jack doesn't know what a conniption fit is, not having been brought up
in an American nursery, but lest it might be something appalling, he
asked how I should like to go out in the car for a short spin. By this
time Hiawatha had been brought home by our chauffeur; and the moon was
soon due to rise, so it seemed an attractive pro