He stopped at that, but allowed her questions to elicit the fact that every afternoon he had followed her at a discreet distance, scrupulously respecting her privacy, but ready for the need that sooner or later must surely arrive. Nan was touched. "You have no right to endanger yourself this way!" he cried, as though carried away. "It is not just to those who care for you!" and by the tone of his voice, the look of his eye, the slight emphasizing pressure of his hand he managed to convey to her, but in a manner to which she could not possibly object, his belief that his last phrase referred more to himself than to any one else in the world. It was about this period that John Sherwood, dressing for dinner, remarked to his wife: "Patsy, the more I see of you the more I admire you. Do you remember that Firemen's Ball when you started in to break up that Keith-Morrell affair? He dropped her so far that I haven't heard her _plunk_ yet! I don't know what made me think of it--it was a long time ago." "Yes, that was all right," she replied thoughtfully, "but I'm not as pleased as I might be with the Keith situation." Sherwood stopped tying his cravat and turned to face her. "He's perfectly straight, I assure you," he said earnestly. "I don't believe he knows that any other woman but his wife exists. I _know_ that. But I wish he'd go a little easier with the men." "Oh, I wasn't thinking of him. She's the culprit now." "What!" cried Sherwood, astonished, "that little innocent baby!" "That 'little innocent baby' is seeing altogether too much of Ben Sansome." Sherwood uttered a snort of masculine scorn. "Ho! Ben Sansome?" "Yes, Ben Sansome." "Why, he's a notorious butterfly." "Well, it looks now as though he intended to alight." "Seriously?" She nodded. Sherwood slowly went on with his dressing. "I like that little creature," he said at last. "She's the sort that strikes me as born to be treated well and to be happy. Some people are that way, you know; just as others are born painters or plumbers." She nodded in appreciation. "And if you give the word, Patsy, I'll go around and have a word with Keith--or spoil Sansome--whichever you say----" She laughed. "You're a dear, Jack, but if you love me, keep your hands off here." "Are you bossing this job?" he asked gravely. "I'm bossing this job," she repeated, with equal gravity. He said nothing more for a time, but his eyes twinkled. XLVII Keith's investigations proceeded until at last he felt justified in preferring before the Bar Association charges of irregular practice against James Ware, Bernard Black, and--to his great regret--Calhoun Bennett. He conceived he had enough evidence to convict these men legally, but he as yet shrank from asking for an indictment against them, preferring at first to try for their discipline before their fellow lawyers. If the Bar Association failed, however, he had every intention of pressing the matter in the courts.