"The next time you come I hope I shall have better luck." Then he hurried off to his appointment, while Corinna stopped at the foot of the staircase and followed with her gaze the slender balustrade of mahogany.

"If they had only left everything as it was!" she thought; and then she said aloud: "It is so lovely out of doors.

Get your hat and we'll walk awhile in the Square.

I can talk to you better there, and I want to talk to you seriously." After the girl had disappeared up the quaint flight of stairs, Corinna stood gazing meditatively at the bar of sunlight over the front door.
She was thinking of what she should say to Patty--how could she possibly warn the girl without wounding her ?--and it was very gradually that she became aware of raised voices in the library and the hard, short sound of words that beat like hail into her consciousness.
"I tell you we can put it over all right if you will only have the sense to keep your hands off!" stormed Gershom in a tone that he was trying in vain to subdue.
"Are you sure they will strike ?" "Dead sure.

You may bet your bottom dollar on that.