it? By gad!
Now, Sis, be a sensible girl. If he should try to hedge, you hold him.
Hold him! Understand?"

"Steve, be quiet," ordered the captain.... "Ah, Mrs. Dunn, good
afternoon, ma'am. Mr. Dunn, good afternoon, sir."

For the pair who, followed by Sylvester, now entered the room were Mrs.
Corcoran Dunn and Malcolm.

They were past the sill before Captain Elisha's greeting caused them to
turn and see the three already there. Mrs. Dunn, who was in the lead,
stopped short in her majestic though creaking march of entrance, and her
florid face turned a brighter crimson. Her son, strolling languidly at
her heels, started violently and dropped his hat. The lawyer, bringing
up in the rear, closed the door and remained standing near it. Caroline
uttered an exclamation of surprise. Her brother drew himself haughtily
erect. Captain Elisha remained unperturbed and smiling.

"Good afternoon, ma'am," he repeated. "It's been some time since you and
I run across each other. I hope you're feelin' pretty smart."

Mrs. Dunn had faced some unpleasant situations in her life and
had proved equal to them. Usually, however, she had been prepared
beforehand. For this she had not been prepared--as yet. She had come
to the offices of Sylvester, Kuhn, and Graves, at the senior partner's
request, to be told, as she supposed, the full and final details of
the financial disaster threatening the Warren family. If those details
should prove the disaster as overwhelming as it appeared, then--well,
then, certain disagreeable duties must be performed. But to meet the
girl to whom her son was engaged, and whom she and he had carefully
avoided meeting until the lawyers should acquaint them with the whole
truth--to meet this girl, and her brother, and her guardian, thus
unexpectedly and unprepared, was enough to shake the composure and nerve
of even such a veteran campaigner as Mrs. M. Corcoran Dunn.

But of the three to whom the meeting was an absolute
surprise,--Caroline, Malcolm and herself--she was characteristically the
first to regain outward serenity. For a moment she stood nonplused and
speechless, but only for a moment. Then she hastened, with outstretched
arms, to Caroline and clasped her in affectionate embrace.

"My dear child!" she cried; "my dear girl! I'm _so_ glad to see you!
I've thought of you so much! And I pity you so. Poor Malcolm
has--Malcolm," sharply, "come here! Don't you see Caroline?"

Malcolm was groping nervously fo