ghtenment, "and now and then I got glimpses of you in your
gypsy life. Your wife had a fortune of her own--she was one of Augustus
Davis's daughters--so of course she hasn't suffered from your
foolishness."

"My wife shared my tastes; there has never been the slightest trouble
between us. Our daughter is just like us. But now Mrs. Tyringham thinks
we ought to settle down and be respectable."

"I knew your wife and daughter had come home. I had got that far," Mr.
Deering resumed. "And after I began to suspect that you and Hood were the
same person I put my own daughter into your house on the Dempster road as
a spy to watch for you."

"My wife wasn't fooled for a minute," Hood chuckled. "We were having our
last fling before we settled down for the rest of our days. We all have
the same weakness for a springtime lark: my wife, my daughter, and I."

Billy ran his hands through his hair. "Pierrette! Pierrette is your
daughter!"

"Certainly," replied Hood; "and Columbine, the dearest woman in the
world, is my wife, and Pantaloon my father-in-law. In my affair with you
there was only one coincidence: everything else was planned. It was
Pierrette, whose real name is Roberta--Bobby for short, when we're not
playing a game of some sort--Bobby really did lift your suitcase by
mistake. And it was stowed away in Cassowary's car when I came to your
house intending to return it. But when I saw that you needed diversion I
decided to give you a whirl. It was an easy matter for Cassowary to move
the suitcase to the bungalow, where you found it. I steered you to the
house on purpose to see how you and Bobby would hit it off. The result
seems to have been satisfactory!"

Cassowary turned uneasily on his bench.

"And before we quit all this foolishness," Hood resumed with a glance at
the chauffeur, "there's one thing I want to ask you, Mr. Deering, as a
special favor. That chap lying over there is Tommy Torrence, whom you
kicked off your door-step for daring to love your daughter. He's one of
the best fellows in the world. Just because his father, the old senator,
didn't quite hit it off with you in a railroad deal before Tommy was born
is no reason why you should take it out on the boy. He started for the
bad after you made a row over his attentions to your daughter, but he's
been with me six months and he's as right and true a chap as ever lived.
You've got to fix it up with him or I'll--I'll--well, I'll be pretty hard
on your boy