s--"

"What for?" demanded Ruyven, rising. "If you mean to keep our cousin
Ormond to yourself--"

"I wish to discuss secrets with my cousin Ormond," said Dorothy,
loftily, and stepped from her chair, nose in the air, and that
heavy-lidded, insolent glance which once before had withered Ruyven, and
now withered him again.

"We will go to the play-room," she whispered, passing me; "that room has
a bolt; they'll all be kicking at the door presently. Follow me."

Ere we had reached the head of the stairs we heard a yell, a rush of
feet, and she laughed, crying: "Did I not say so? They are after us now
full bark! Come!"

She caught my hand in hers and sped up the few remaining steps, then
through the upper hallway, guiding me the while her light feet flew; and
I, embarrassed, bewildered, half laughing, half shamed to go a-racing
through a strange house in such absurd a fashion.

"Here!" she panted, dragging me into a great, bare chamber and bolting
the door, then leaned breathless against the wall to listen as the chase
galloped up, clamoring, kicking and beating on panel and wall, baffled.

"They're raging to lose their new cousin," she breathed, smiling across
at me with a glint of pride in her eyes. "They all think mightily of
you, and now they'll be mad to follow you like hound-pups the whip, all
day long." She tossed her head. "They're good lads, and Cecile is a
sweet child, too, but they must be made to understand that there are
moments when you and I desire to be alone together."

"Of course," I said, gravely.

"You and I have much to consider, much to discuss in these uncertain
days," she said, confidently. "And we cannot babble matters of import to
these children--"

"I'm seventeen!" howled Ruyven, through the key-hole. "Dorothy's not
eighteen till next month, the little fool--"

"Don't mind him," said Dorothy, raising her voice for Ruyven's benefit.
"A lad who listens to his elders through a key-hole is not fit for
serious--"

A heavy assault on the door drowned Dorothy's voice. She waited calmly
until the uproar had subsided.

"Let us sit by the window," she said, "and I will tell you how we
Varicks stand betwixt the deep sea and the devil."

"I wish to come in!" shouted Ruyven, in a threatening voice. Dorothy
laughed, and pointed to a great arm-chair of leather and oak. "I will
sit there; place it by the window, cousin."

I placed the chair for her; she seated herself with unconscious grace,
a