Wayne?" Mrs. Baxter must have felt herself revenged by the complete
surprise of Adelaide's tone.

"Yes, she dined at the house last evening. Apparently it was to have been
a tete-a-tete dinner, but my arrival changed it to a _partie carree_."
She talked on about Wilsey and the conversation of the evening, but it
made little difference what she said, for her full idea had reached
Adelaide from the start, and had gathered to itself in an instant a
hundred confirmatory memories. Like a picture, she saw before her Mrs.
Wayne's sitting-room, with the ink-spots on the rug. Who would not wish
to exchange that for Mr. Lanley's series of fresh, beautiful rooms?
Suddenly she gave her attention back to Mrs. Baxter, who was saying:

"I assure you, when we were alone I was prepared for a formal
announcement."

It was not safe to be the bearer of ill tidings to Adelaide.

"An announcement?" she said wonderingly. "Oh, no, Mrs. Baxter, my father
will never marry again. There have always been rumors, and you can't
imagine how he and I have laughed over them together."

As the indisputable subject of such rumors in past times, Mrs. Baxter
fitted a little arrow in her bow.

"In the past," she said, "women of suitable age have not perhaps been
willing to consider the question, but this lady seems to me
distinctly willing."

"More than willingness on the lady's part has been needed," answered
Adelaide, and then Pringle's ample form appeared in the doorway. "There's
a man from the office here, Madam, asking to see Mr. Farron."

"Mr. Farron can see no one." A sudden light flashed upon her. "What is
his name, Pringle?"

"Burke, Madam."

"Oh, let him come in." Adelaide turned to Mrs. Baxter. "I will show
you," she said, "one of the finest sights you ever saw." The next
instant Marty was in the room. Not so gorgeous as in his
wedding-attire, he was still an exceedingly fine young animal. He was
not so magnificently defiant as before, but he scowled at his
unaccustomed surroundings under his dark brows.

"It's Mr. Farron I wanted to see," he said, a soft roll to his r's. At
Mrs. Wayne's Adelaide had suffered from being out of her own
surroundings, but here she was on her own field, and she meant to make
Burke feel it. She was leaning with her elbow on the back of the sofa,
and now she slipped her bright rings down her slim fingers and shook them
back again as she looked up at Burke and spoke to him as she would have
done to a serva