"Aren't you unduly sensitive! She hasn't done anything but be nice to him." "She has done enough to provoke talk and 'set the old tabby-cats mewing,' as Devereux says--he heard them mewing at the Croydens. I don't like it, Gladys. Stephanie is hurting her chances for complete rehabilitation because of a foolish notion, as you know, and----" "I don't know that it is foolish," Gladys interrupted. "Well it is, nevertheless--and because of her quarrel with me. She's headstrong and a bit wilful and we must look out for her--you and I." "Which _you_ proceed to do by quarrelling with her." "I was justified in quarrelling with her--you should have heard what she said. However, I admit that in this instance justification isn't an excuse. I'll apologize and make a fresh start--if she will let me." "She'll let you!" laughed Gladys. "Has she mentioned our quarrel to you?" he asked eagerly. "Not a word--but if you show the proper spirit, she'll be only too glad to make up. I know it--trust me. You are the one man, Montague, whom she will permit to advise her." "She didn't permit it--she resented it." "Because you went at it in the wrong way. Stephanie Lorraine is the easiest girl in the world to manage if you handle her right--but if you don't----" an expressive shrug ended the sentence. "I think she has become more so, since the Amherst affair--which is entirely natural." "I know it. I should have made every allowance for her," Pendleton concurred. "I'll fix it up with her if she will let me." Miss Chamberlain smiled satisfiedly. "She will let you, never fear, as I said before." She drank the last of her tea and put down the cup. "I just learned today," she said, "that shortly after Stephanie's return a resolution was introduced, by one of Lorraine's friends on the Board of Governors, requesting her resignation; that after a desperate fight it was held over until the next meeting--when it was voluntarily withdrawn by the mover. Is it true?" "It is true--but I didn't know it had got out," he answered. "I heard it only this morning. It was pretty well kept--for a Board secret." "Yes--about four weeks overtime. Why is it that some one on the Board always leaks?" "Why is it that almost everyone on the Board leaks?" she amended. "Talk about women not being able to keep a secret. If there is anything more gossippy and leaky than a man's club, I should like to know it." He smiled tolerantly, with a good-natured air. "Different sexes, different minds," he replied. "But the same delight in gossip!" she retorted. "However, to return to the road, as you would say. What caused Lorraine's friend to have a change of heart, do you suppose?"