ld imagine the resulting scene if ever this innocently proposed
introduction were given.

"I guess that for the present I'll have to depend upon your reports,
Dick."

"Well, you can take it from me that she's just about all right!"

It was Larry's strange instinct to protect Maggie that prompted his next
remark:

"You're not just out joy-riding, are you, Dick?"

Dick flushed. "Nothing of that sort. She's not that kind of girl.
Besides--I think it's the real thing, Captain."

The honest look in Dick's eyes, even more than his words, quieted
Larry's fear for Maggie. Presently Dick walked out leaving Larry yet
another problem added to his life. He could not let anything happen
to Maggie. He could not let anything happen to Dick. He had to protect
each; he had to do something. Yet what could he do?

Yes, this certainly was a problem! He paced the room, another victim of
the ancient predicament of divided and antagonistic duty.

CHAPTER XIX

The night of Larry's unexpected call upon her at the Grantham, Maggie
had pulled herself together and aided by the imposing Miss Grierson had
done her best as ingenue hostess to her pseudo-cousin, Barney, and her
pseudo-uncle, Old Jimmie, and to their quarry, Dick Sherwood, whom
they were so cautiously stalking. But when Dick had gone, and when Miss
Grierson had withdrawn to permit her charge a little visit with her
relatives, Barney had been prompt with his dissatisfaction.

"What was the matter with you to-night, Maggie?" he demanded. "You
didn't play up to your usual form."

"If you don't like the way I did it, you may get some one else," Maggie
snapped back.

"Aw, don't get sore. If I'm stage-managing this show, I guess it's my
business to tell you how to act the part, and to tell you when you're
endangering the success of the piece by giving a poor performance."

"Maybe you'd better get some one else to take my part right now."

Maggie's tone and look were implacable. Barney moved uneasily. That was
the worst about Maggie: she wouldn't take advice from any one unless the
advice were a coincidence with or an enlargement of her own wishes, and
she was particularly temperish to-night. He hastened to appease her.

"I guess the best of us have our off days. It's all right
unless"--Barney hesitated, business fear and jealousy suddenly seizing
him--"unless the way you acted tonight means you don't intend to go
through with it?"

"Why shouldn't I go through with