ce.

Things proceeded in this course without interruption until eleven
o'clock. The Judge, finding it possible to get ahead so satisfactorily
by this new method, decided to send on considerably more material to be
passed upon by his critical coadjutor at the Capitol than he had
originally intended to do at this time. But as the clock struck the hour
a caller's card was sent in to him, and with a word to Roberta he left
the room to see his visitor elsewhere.

Roberta finished her paragraph, then sat studying the next one. She did
not look up, nor did Richard. The moments passed and the Judge did not
return. Roberta rose and threw open the window beside her, letting in a
great sweep of December air.

Richard seized his opportunity. "Good for you!" he applauded. "Shall I
open mine?"

"Please. It will warm up again very quickly. It began to seem stifling."

"Not much like the place where you want to build a cabin and stay alone
in a storm. Or--not alone. You are willing to have a dog with you. What
sort of a dog?"

"A Great Dane, I think. I have a friend who owns one. They are
inseparable."

By the worst of luck the Judge chose this moment to return, and the
windows went down with a rush.

The Judge shivered, smiling at the pair. "You young things, all warmth
and vitality! You are never so happy as when the wind is lifting your
hair. Now I think I'm pretty vigorous for my years, but I wouldn't sit
and talk in a room with two open windows, in December."

"Neither can we--hang it!" thought Richard. "Why couldn't that chap have
stayed a few minutes longer--when we'd just got started?"

At luncheon-time Roberta's part in the work was not completed. Her uncle
asked for two hours more of her time and she cheerfully promised it. So
at two o'clock the stage was again set as a business office, the actors
again engaged in their parts. But at three the situation was abruptly
changed.

"I believe there are no more revisions to be made," declared Judge Gray
with a sigh of weariness. "I have taxed you heavily, my dear, but if you
are equal to finishing these eleven sheets for me by yourself I shall be
grateful. My eyes have reached the limit of endurance, even with all the
help you have given me. I must go to my room."

He paused by Richard's desk on his way out. "Have you finished the
abstract of the chapter on Judge Cahill?" he asked. "No? I thought you
would perhaps have covered that this morning. But--I do not mean to