's stately and gracious mother,
who came in to greet Seaton and invite him to have dinner with them.

"I knew that Dot would forget such an unimportant matter," she said,
with a glint of Dorothy's own mischief in her eyes.

* * * * *

As they went into the dining-room Dorothy was amazed to see the changes
that six days had wrought in Seaton. His face looked thin, almost
haggard. Fine lines had made their appearance at the corners of his eyes
and around his mouth, and faint but unmistakable blue rings encircled
his eyes.

"You have been working too hard, boy," she reproved him gravely.

"Oh, no," he rejoined lightly. "I'm all right, I never felt better. Why,
I could whip a rattlesnake right now, and give him the first bite!"

She laughed at his reply, but the look of concern did not leave her
face. As soon as they were seated at the table she turned to her father,
a clean-cut, gray-haired man of fifty, known as one of the shrewdest
attorneys in the city.

"Daddy," she demanded, "what do you mean by being elected director in
the Seaton-Crane Company and not telling me anything about it?"

"Daughter," he replied in the same tone, "what do you mean by asking
such a question as that? Don't you know that it is a lawyer's business
to get information, and to give it out only to paying clients? However,
I can tell you all I know about the Seaton-Crane Company without adding
to your store of knowledge at all. I was present at one meeting, gravely
voted 'aye' once, and that is all."

"Didn't you draw up the articles of incorporation?"

"I am doing it, yes; but they don't mean anything. They merely empower
the Company to do anything it wants to, the same as other large
companies do." Then, after a quick but searching glance at Seaton's worn
face and a warning glance at his daughter, he remarked:

"I read in the _Star_ this evening that Enright and Stanwix will
probably make the Australian Davis Cup team, and that the Hawaiian with
the unpronounceable name has broken three or four more world's records.
What do you think of our tennis chances this year, Dick?"

Dorothy flushed, and the conversation, steered by the lawyer into the
safer channels, turned to tennis, swimming, and other sports. Seaton,
whose plate was unobtrusively kept full by Mr. Vaneman, ate such a
dinner as he had not eaten in weeks. After the meal was over they all
went into the spacious living-room, where the men ensconce