well-bred girl could actually drop open. But Laura's did. With a good
strong light, Allan told me, he could have examined her tonsils for her.
Rather a disgusting thought. You see until she saw me there, poor Laura had
me so thoroughly placed--my school-marm job, my tastes and habits,
everything, all cut and dried. She has never once come to my school, and in
every talk we've ever had there has always been some perfectly good and
absorbing reason why we should talk about Laura alone."

"There is now," said her father. He was in no mood for tomfoolery. His
daughter saw it and smiled a little.

"What is it?" she inquired. And then he let her have it!

"Laura wants to get married," he snapped.

Deborah caught her breath at that, and an eager excited expression swept
over her attractive face. She had leaned forward suddenly.

"Father! No! Which one?" she asked. "Tell me! Is it Harold Sloane?"

"It is."

"Oh, dad." She sank back in her chair. "Oh, dad," she repeated.

"What's the matter with Sloane?" he demanded.

"Oh, nothing, nothing--it's all right--"

"It is, eh? How do you know it is?" His anxious eyes were still upon hers,
and he saw she was thinking fast and hard and shutting him completely out.