"Oh, come, now, Chris, she must have said more than that!" "No, she didn't. She said that she must make it up to this girl, and she wished to see Lee about it immediately." "To change her will!" Alice exclaimed. "She didn't say so. Of course, it may be some sort of blackmail." Christopher looked whimsically at his wife. "As I remember my father-in-law," he said, "it seems to me improbable that out of the past could come this engaging young girl--very pretty, they said----" "Father! Oh, nonsense!" Alice exclaimed, almost in relief at the absurdity. "No, but it might be some business--some claim against the firm," she suggested. "Well, I thought of that. But there are one or two reasons why it doesn't seem the solution. I asked your mother if it was money, and she said no, said it positively and repeatedly. Then I asked her if she would like this Sheridan woman shut up, and she was quite indignant. Kate!--Kate was one of the most magnificent women God had ever made, and so on!" "Well, I do remember Mrs. Sheridan as a lovely sort of person," Alice contributed. "Plain, you know, but quite wonderful for--well, _goodness_. It's funny--but then you know Mama is terribly excitable," she added, "she gets frightfully worked up over nothing, or almost nothing. It's quite possible that when Kate recalled old times to her she suddenly wished that she had done more for Kate--something like that. She'd think nothing of sending for Judge Lee on the spot. You remember her recalling us from our wedding-trip because she couldn't find the pearls? All the way from Lake Louise to hear that they had been lost!" "I know," Christopher smiled. "She is--unique, _ma belle mère_. By George, I'll never forget our rushing into the house like maniacs, not knowing what had happened to Leslie or Acton, and having her fall sobbing into your arms, with the pearls in her hands!" "Mama's wonderful," Alice laughed. "Chris, did you eat any dinner?" He considered. "But I'm really not hungry, dear," he protested. Alice, superbly incredulous, rang at once. Who was in the kitchen? Well, she was to be asked to send up a tray at once to Mr. Liggett. "Now that you asked me, the dinner had reached the point of ice-cream in a paper tub, as I sat down," he remembered. "You're a little miracle of healing to me, Alice. When I came in here I didn't know _what_ we were up against, as a family. Your mother wished the girl pensioned----" "Oh, Chris, not really?" "I give you my word!" But he was enough his usual self to have taken his seat at the piano, now, and was looking at her across it, while his fingers fitted themselves lazily to chords and harmonics. "I'll tell you something, if you'll promise to stop playing the instant your supper comes up!" "I'll promise!"