Eleanor laughed, and beckoned Paul to come up again. So the grinning elevator man carried them up and very considerately accepted the tip Paul slipped into his palm as he stepped from the lift. The Japanese butler had not waited for Mr. Dalken, however, and was passing the famous patties and sandwiches when the three absent members of the party entered again, and tried to act as if nothing unusual had happened. Polly had witnessed Paul's flying departure, and thereafter saw Jack and Eleanor astounded in the darkened library. When Mr. Dalken rushed in and dragged them both away, Polly stood open-mouthed and stared after them. The Jap wisely hurried forward and carefully closed the front door, then went back to his duties without showing that he had seen the queer performances of his master, or found Polly standing there, the single witness of the scene. Polly still stood in the hall deeply perplexed, when Tom sauntered from Mr. Dalken's bedroom where he had been smoking a cigarette to steady his nerves. Now he joined Polly and began a conventional phrase, but was suddenly interrupted by her. "What does all this silly behavior mean?" demanded she. "Do you refer to my behavior?" asked Tom, blandly. Polly's eyes snapped. "Of course not! Must you always think yourself first and foremost?" As this was an unexpected and undeserved slap for Tom, he was still groping for a clue, when Polly's angry impatience with herself for having made such a blunder in her calculations about Eleanor and the others, made her exclaim: "Well, I can plainly see that Nolla will never make any sort of a business partner for me! Her foolish head is so turned by beaus, that she will never settle down until Paul has either spurned her love, or she is married and divorced again. _Then_ there may be hopes of her attending to our work." As Tom was not aware of Paul's sudden appearance and hasty departure, he still pondered what was best to say to Polly, in her unusual pettish mood. But she paid no heed to his silence and continued, like most women will when they have been mistaken, and fear the consequences of an ill-advised step. "I declare! if Paul does come back and makes up with Nolla, I shall move heaven and earth to see that they are safely engaged this time! And that Jack Baxter, well, I'll make Dalky ship him off to some distant college so there'll be no further wasting of valuable time with him!" This last declaration so over-joyed Tom that he found courage to offer a suggestion. But he was too unwise this time. "You're absolutely right, Polly dear. That Baxter has nothing better to do than kill time. He never did a stroke of work in his life, nor did his father before him. Those young 'lady's men' who live on their ancestor's rewards of labor, never amount to a row of beans." Polly stared freezingly at Tom, but he was completely mesmerized with the romantic picture he was presenting, and so he continued oblivious of his companion's expression.