a way which made Dart look at her
sharply and which for a very brief time left him a little uncertain.

"Me?" he said. "You wrong me, lady. Honest you do. I'm sired by a
gentleman who was a Baptist minister and who instilled in his only son
if you lie once you'll do it some more and then you'll get caught.
Say, seeing Wanda ain't here to do the knockdown stunt, I'm Dart, Mr.
Willie Dart, to command."

He bobbed her a bow, accompanied the ceremony with a little flap of the
coat tails, and all the while did not shift his round, inquisitive eyes
from her face.

"Being acquainted now," he went on when a little pause assured him that
she was not going to respond with an exchange of names, "just make
yourself to home, won't you? I'll duck in and tell Wanda you're here.
And," merely as an afterthought, "what name will I say, lady?"

"Don't bother," she replied coolly. "She knows I'm here."

"Does she? She hasn't been expecting you, has she?"

"No." Miss Hazleton's interest in the little man had evidently died a
sudden death, and her one concern now seemed to get herself warm and
dry.

"She's one great little kid, Wanda is, ain't she?" he ran on, totally
unaffected by the significance of the young woman's back whose graceful
curves were not lost to his admiring eyes.

"If you say so she must be," came the calm answer. "I never saw her
before to-day."

"And you don't know old Mart?" She did not know Wanda, he surmised,
she had wondered if he were Leland, then it must be Mrs. Leland she had
come to see. "Say," he continued, "maybe Wanda couldn't find Mamma
Leland! I'll just slip in and break the news. Gee, won't she be
tickled to see you, you coming unexpected like this?"

"Really, Mr. Dart," she told him crisply, "you needn't take the
trouble. Mrs. Leland wouldn't be the least bit glad to see me as she
doesn't know me. And if you haven't discovered the fact already I
might as well tell you that I am eminently capable of managing my own
affairs."

Mr. Dart's silent whistle came very near being audible. But he
answered in a voice which was meant to assure her that his sensitive
nature had not been hurt and that his admiration had merely been
stimulated.

"That's me," he said brightly. "Give me the dame every time that makes
her own play and don't yell, 'Help' if she sticks a pin in her finger.
Them doll-babies some guys go dippy over don't qualify for the finals
with me."

But Mr. Dart was puzzled