"And about Arthur--" she began, and I cut myself a painful stab with my nails--right in the palm--"now there is a case where I think you find"--she nodded toward the house again--"where you find one of his superb qualities, the one quality that, of all, I admire in a man the most." "By Jove!" I said, leaning forward. I wondered what it was--and then, dash it, I asked her. "Just _trust_!" she said simply, and her face grew luminous. "Faith, perhaps I should say. _My_ father has it larger than any man I ever knew; it is something that goes out from him with his friendship, with his love, making a dual gift"--her voice dropped thoughtfully--"I have studied it in him all my life, and it has always seemed so beautiful to me--so wonderful--the unquestioning peace he has"--her blue eyes widened, shining--"has ever in return for the perfect, abiding trust that he gives to the thing he calls his own. I _know_, for he has made _me_ feel it from the time I was a tiny little girl!" The last word was almost a whisper, so tense, so vibrant with feeling was it--she _seemed_ to have forgotten my existence. "And if ever I find a man--" she breathed. I coughed slightly and she started, stared at me--and then the dimple deepened in her cheek, lost in a bed of jolly roses. Her laughter pealed forth, birdlike--delicious! "I _beg_ your pardon!" she said. "But when I think of papa and of how he believes in his children, especially poor little _me_, I think I must get--" Her roguish, puzzled smile searched my face. "_How_ is it you say it?--oh, I know--'I think I must be getting _dippy_!'" And it was the first slang I had heard from those sweet lips since the night she was in my rooms! CHAPTER XXIX "BECAUSE YOU--ARE YOU" Poor, brave-hearted girl! How pitiful and heartrending to a keen-eyed man of the world, seemed her poor, little sham about her father's trust in her! For _I_ knew the facts, you know! What a little thoroughbred she was! By Jove, I just sat there for a full two minutes, bending toward her worshipfully, but with such a lump choking my devilish throat that dash me if I could chirp a single word. Just sat there--that's all--blinking damply at her with my free eye, studying with growing wonder the light she managed to summon to her face; heartsick for the care-free mockery of the cherry lips, shaping seemingly in a meditative whistle; all my jolly heart beating time to the lithesome tapping of her smart little boot upon the wooden floor. And she? She, brave heart, leaning back watching me through her long, fringing lashes--forcing a quizzical smile to her face, the while the jolly worm was gnawing at her what-you-call-'ems!