stration."

"Something with a band or a phonograph?"

She was evidently thinking it out--or wished to appear to be. "Not quite
that either. This would be more like it. Suppose I send for Nancy to
come here now and consult with me as to whether I shall accept your
offer or not. If I told her before you, she could hardly refuse to
believe it. And you would be safe, for there isn't the least doubt what
advice she will give me."

"You think she will advise you against me?"

Christine nodded. "She will try to save you from the awful fate she is
reserving for her brother." She touched the bell. "Do you feel nervous?"

"A trifle," he answered, and indeed he did, for he knew better than
Christine could, how strange this coming interview would appear to Mrs.
Almar after the conversation before lunch. He consoled himself, however,
by the thought that train-time was drawing near, "and then, please
heaven," he said to himself, "I need never see any of them again."

"Isn't it strange," began Miss Fenimer, and then as a servant appeared in
the doorway: "Oh, will you please ask Mrs. Almar to come here for a few
minutes and speak to me. Tell her it is very important. Isn't it
strange," she went on, when the man had gone, "that I'm not a bit
nervous, and yet I have so much more at stake than you have."

"You have a good deal clearer notion of your role than I."

"Your role is easy. You confirm everything I say, and contrive to look a
little depressed at the end. Nothing could be simpler."

He hesitated. "Simpler than to look depressed when you refuse me?"

"No one really likes to be refused," she said. "Even I, hardened as I am,
felt a certain distaste for the idea that Laura had been urging me on
your reluctant acceptance. By the way, you did seem able to say no, after
all your talk on our unfortunate drive about no man's being able to
refuse a woman."

"Oh, a third party," he answered. "That's a very different thing. Had it
been you yourself, with streaming eyes--" He looked at her sitting very
cool and straight at a safe distance.

"I don't think I could cry to save my life," she observed. "Certainly not
to save my reputation."

He did not answer. The situation had begun to seem like a game to him, or
some absurd farce in which he was only reading some regular actor's part;
and when presently the door opened to admit Mrs. Almar, he felt as if she
had been waiting all the time in the wings.

Nancy stopped with a gestur