A thrill of interest stirred his pulses while something held him there against his will and his better judgment, as if he were caught fast in the steel spring of a trap.
"Oh, that's nothing," replied Patty, with her air of mockery.

"If there were no worse things than that!" He did not hold out his hand, though there was a flutter toward him of her fingers--pretty fingers they were for a girl with no blood that one could mention in public.

There was a faint hope in his mind that he might still vanish unthanked and undetained.

The one quality in father and daughter which had arrested his favourable attention--the quality of "a good sport"-- would probably aid in his escape.
"Drop in some evening, and we'll have a talk," said the Governor in his slightly theatrical but extremely confident manner, "there are things I'd like to say to you.

You are a lawyer, if I remember, in Judge Horatio Page's firm, and you were in the war from the beginning." Stephen smiled.