t punctilious inquirer could have bowed now, and walked
away down the steps. Cally imperceptibly hesitated.

She had four times met this man, and he had three times (at the lowest
computation) driven her from his presence. That thought, unsettling in
its way, had leapt at her somewhere in the night: she had sought to
drape it, but it had persisted somewhat stark. And now had not he
himself taught her, by that hateful apology which seemed to have settled
nothing, that there were subtler requitals than by buffets upon
the front?...

The pause was psychological purely, well covered by the card-giving.
Words rose to Cally's tongue's tip, gracious words which would show in
the neatest way how unjust were this man's opinions of her and her
family. However, the adversary spoke first.

"I'm so glad to--to see you again, Miss Heth," he began, with a loss of
ease, twirling the B. Thornton Heth cards between long thin fingers--"to
have the opportunity to say.... That is--perhaps you'll let me say--you
mustn't think the Works are so--so disappointing as perhaps they may
seem, just at first sight. You know--"

Her flushing cheeks stopped him abruptly; and she had not usually found
him easy to stop.

"But I didn't think they were disappointing at _all_! Not in the
_least_!"

The young man's eyes fell.

"Oh!" he said, with noticeable embarrassment. "I--only thought that
possibly--as you--you had not happened to be in the factory district
for--for some time,--that possibly you might be just a little surprised
that things weren't--well, prettier. You know, business--"

"But I wasn't surprised at all, I've said! I knew exactly what it was
like, of course. Just exactly. And I consider the Works--_very
pretty_ ... for a factory."

She gazed up at him indignantly from beneath a little mushroom hat lined
with pink, challenging him to contradict her by look or word. But he
swallowed her dare without a quiver.... Good heavens, what girl worth
her salt would endure apologies on behalf of her own father, from one so
much, much worse than a stranger to her? It may be that V. Vivian liked
the lovely Hun the better for that lie.

"Well," he said, compounding the felony with a gallant gulp, "I--I'm
glad you weren't disappointed--"

She could certainly have retired upon that with all the honors, but the
fact was that the thought of doing so did not at the moment cross her
mind. She found the conversation interesting to a somewhat
peril