r. "You don't seem to be interested in the least."

"I was going to ask, so soon as I had finished correcting this sheet,"
explained Tommy. "What reason does he give?"

Peter had crossed over and was standing where he could see her face
illumined by the lamplight.

"It doesn't upset you--the thought of his going away, of your never
seeing him again?"

"Why should it?" Tommy answered his searching gaze with a slightly
puzzled look. "Of course, I'm sorry. He was becoming useful. But we
couldn't expect him to stop with us always, could we?"

Peter, rubbing his hands, broke into a chuckle. "I told him 'twas all
fiddlesticks. Clodd, he would have it you were growing to care for the
fellow."

"For Dick Danvers?" Tommy laughed. "Whatever put that into his head?"

"Oh, well, there were one or two little things that we had noticed."

"We?"

"I mean that Clodd had noticed."

I'm glad it was Clodd that noticed them, not you, dad, thought Tommy to
herself. They'd have been pretty obvious if you had noticed them.

"It naturally made me anxious," confessed Peter. "You see, we know
absolutely nothing of the fellow."

"Absolutely nothing," agreed Tommy.

"He may be a man of the highest integrity. Personally, I think he is. I
like him. On the other hand, he may be a thorough-paced scoundrel. I
don't believe for a moment that he is, but he may be. Impossible to
say."

"Quite impossible," agreed Tommy.

"Considered merely as a journalist, it doesn't matter. He writes well.
He has brains. There's an end of it."

"He is very painstaking," agreed Tommy.

"Personally," added Peter, "I like the fellow." Tommy had returned to
her work.

Of what use was Peter in a crisis of this kind? Peter couldn't scold.
Peter couldn't bully. The only person to talk to Tommy as Tommy knew she
needed to be talked to was one Jane, a young woman of dignity with sense
of the proprieties.

"I do hope that at least you are feeling ashamed of yourself," remarked
Jane to Tommy that same night, as the twain sat together in their little
bedroom.

"Done nothing to be ashamed of," growled Tommy.

"Making a fool of yourself openly, for everybody to notice."

"Clodd ain't everybody. He's got eyes at the back of his head. Sees
things before they happen."

"Where's your woman's pride: falling in love with a man who has never
spoken to you, except in terms of the most ordinary courtesy."

"I'm not in love with him."

"A