Above the flare of a fresh match and a fresh cigarette Jaffrey Bretton restudied her face. "And--do--you--find it convenient now to retract it?" he asked. "I am not in the habit of retracting my statements," said Miss Merriwayne. "S--o?" mused Jaffrey Bretton. As though by pure accident, his eyes strayed to the blue prints on the table. "What have we here?" he smiled, "building plans?" Sardonically from his own particular silence Sheridan Kaire's laugh rang out. "Those are the plans for the new library," he confided, "that your daughter and I are considering giving to her--to her Alma Mater!" Humor for humor Jaffrey Bretton's laugh answered his. "Good stuff!" he said, "the one bright thought!" [187] "And you?" he addressed one stranger, "are the--the possible architect?" "I am," conceded the architect. Very definitely Jaffrey Bretton drew back a little from the door and pointed to the passageway. "Trot along!" he smiled. "And you?" he asked the old gentleman. "I am Miss Merriwayne's oldest trustee," asserted that dignitary with some unctuousness. "Trot along!" smiled Jaffrey Bretton. With punctilious courtesy he waved the Dean's lovely old mother after them. "For the moment," he begged her, "you will pardon my peremptoriness? The thing that remains to be said is said best to the least numbers." "But I--I like--your little girl!" protested the frail but determinate aristocrat. "So do I!" smiled Bretton, but nodded her out. "Who are you?" demanded Bretton of the only man but Kaire who remained. "I am John Burnarde!" said the man, quite invincibly. "I thought so!" said Bretton. "And as Miss Merriwayne's rather special [188] representative at this time," added John Burnarde, "I refuse to leave the room while she remains!" "Oh, I like _you_!" said Bretton. "I've always rather liked you! But whether I did or not!" he crisped, "you've _got_ to stay! You and Miss Merriwayne, and Daphne, and myself!" With a toss of his white hair he flung a message to the master of the house-boat. "Sorry to bully your guests so, Kaire!" he said. "But not knowing the plan of your boat, and being too formal to rummage around very much," he added dryly, "this cabin seemed somehow the surest place for a rather private conversation. . . . Shall you still remain with us as our host?" "I certainly shall!" snapped Kaire. "You are perfectly welcome," smiled Jaffrey Bretton. "And you notice, perhaps--that the engine has not started?" "I notice only too damned well," said Kaire, "that the engine has not started!" Out of the shadowy curve of Sheridan Kaire's jealous arm Daphne sprang suddenly forward. "Oh, Old-Dad!" she besought him, [189] "please--Please--don't make such a fuss! What's the good of it? What's the use? If I'm bad, I'm bad! And--unless I'm going crazy, too--what is there left but _fun_?" "But you see you're all wrong," smiled her father. "You're not 'bad' at all! Without any question whatsoever you're the goodest person here!"