“Any minute now,” said Noah, smoothing down his hair with an inky finger. “I--I think the clock is a little fast.” Then as Connie laughed, he jerked up the top of his desk and disappeared behind it. “Stuffy old place!” said Connie, wandering about the room. “If Mr. Gooch wasn't so stingy he'd have it cleaned up.” “I wouldn't call a man stingy who had given a library to the law school,” Hattie objected. “Yes, and he's spent the rest of his life saving every penny to pay himself back for it. He has eaten fifty-two suppers a year at our house for ten years, that's five hundred and twenty suppers, and he's never even treated us to a chocolate sundae!” “I don't think it's stingy to be economical,” Hattie said with her most superior air. Noah, who was facing the open door, suddenly began making strange gestures, and violent appeals for silence, but the girls were off on an old argument and did not see him. “Besides,” Connie was saying conclusively, “he cheats at cards; you know he does.” “Only at solitaire. I don't see any reason why he shouldn't cheat himself if he wants to. He's all right, even if he is queer, and I think you ought to be ashamed of yourself to talk about him the way you do!” “How do you do, Harriet?” said Mr. Gooch dryly, entering from the outer room and not glancing at Connie. “A message from your father?” Connie slipped the note into Hattie's hand and took refuge with Noah behind the desk top. “Did he hear?” she whispered hysterically. Then not waiting for a reply she pounced upon an object in the desk. “Is that a mirror?” Noah shamefacedly produced it. “Hold it for me,” she commanded. “Not so far off. Like that!” Standing there behind the desk holding his little mirror for her to powder her nose seemed to Noah the apotheosis of romance. “Too much?” she asked, tilting her face for inspection. “And is my hat right? I want to look my best, because you know I _may_ meet Donald Morley on the steps.” She was evidently not disappointed, for Noah, standing at the window waiting to catch the last flutter of her feather as she passed up the street, had to wait five agonizing minutes, at the end of which Don spoke to him from the door. “Hello, Wick. Is Mr. Gooch here?” “He was a minute ago.” “Is he coming back?” “I don't know, I'm sure.” Noah made the answers in a tone that discouraged further conversation, and Donald after a sharp glance at him, shrugged his shoulders and picked up a book. He had not long to wait before Mr. Gooch returned. “I've been telephoning all over town for you,” said the lawyer testily. “Is this rumor true that you have bought back your bank stock?” “It is. It was the only honest thing I could do.” “Not at all,” complained Mr. Gooch, who became passionately attached to the contrary opinion the moment he ascertained yours. “It was a most quixotic, a most reckless course to take. I suppose you know of the double liability?” “Yes, I know,” Donald flung out impatiently.