hurt you--not even a little bit, after all. Now, you run right
home to your mother."

The girl did not need to be told twice. On the instant, she
sprang up joyously, and started toward the door, with a final
ravishing smile for the pleased official at the desk.

"I'll go just as fast as ever I can," the musical voice made
assurance blithely.

"Give my compliments to your father," Burke requested
courteously. "And tell him I'm sorry I frightened you."

The girl turned at the door.... After all, too great haste might
be indiscreet.

"I will, Commissioner," she promised, with an arch smile. "And I
know papa will be so grateful to you for all your kindness to
me!"

It was at this critical moment that Cassidy entered from the
opposite side of the office. As his eyes fell on the girl at the
door across from him, his stolid face lighted in a grin. And, in
that same instant of recognition between the two, the color went
out of the girl's face. The little red lips snapped together in
a line of supreme disgust against this vicissitude of fate after
all her manoeuverings in the face of the enemy. She stood
motionless in wordless dismay, impotent before this disaster
forced on her by untoward chance.