The house was very still. Outside the double windows they could hear the faint murmuring click of the frozen snow. A radiator in the hallway clanked and strangled for a moment, then fell quiet again. "What a pretty room this is," said Laura. "I think I'll have to do our guest room something like this--a sort of white and gold effect. My hair? Oh, I don't know. Wearing it low that way makes it catch so on the hooks of your collar, and, besides, I was afraid it would make my head look so flat." There was a silence. Laura braided a long strand, with quick, regular motions of both hands, and letting it fall over her shoulder, shook it into place with a twist of her head. She stepped out of her skirt, and Mrs. Cressler handed her her dressing-gown, and brought out a pair of quilted slippers of red satin from the wardrobe. In the grate, the fire that had been lighted just before they had come upstairs was crackling sharply. Laura drew up an armchair and sat down in front of it, her chin in her hand. Mrs. Cressler stretched herself upon the bed, an arm behind her head. "Well, Laura," she began at length, "I have some real news for you. My dear, I believe you've made a conquest." "I!" murmured Laura, looking around. She feigned a surprise, though she guessed at once that Mrs. Cressler had Corthell in mind. "That Mr. Jadwin--the one you met at the opera." Genuinely taken aback, Laura sat upright and stared wide-eyed. "Mr. Jadwin!" she exclaimed. "Why, we didn't have five minutes' talk. Why, I hardly know the man. I only met him last night." But Mrs. Cressler shook her head, closing her eyes and putting her lips together. "That don't make any difference, Laura. Trust me to tell when a man is taken with a girl. My dear, you can have him as easy as that." She snapped her fingers. "Oh, I'm sure you're mistaken, Mrs. Cressler." "Not in the least. I've known Curtis Jadwin now for fifteen years--nobody better. He's as old a family friend as Charlie and I have. I know him like a book. And I tell you the man is in love with you." "Well, I hope he didn't tell you as much," cried Laura, promising herself to be royally angry if such was the case. But Mrs. Cressler hastened to reassure her. "Oh my, no. But all the way home last night--he came home with us, you know--he kept referring to you, and just so soon as the conversation got on some other subject he would lose interest. He wanted to know all about you--oh, you know how a man will talk," she exclaimed. "And he said you had more sense and more intelligence than any girl he had ever known." "Oh, well," answered Laura deprecatingly, as if to say that that did not count for much with her. "And that you were simply beautiful. He said that he never remembered to have seen a more beautiful woman." Laura turned her head away, a hand shielding her cheek. She did not answer immediately, then at length: "Has he--this Mr. Jadwin--has he ever been married before?"