She spoke quietly; not as if she were greatly concerned to know the
answer; yet if Lawrence had guessed how her heart beat he would have
had still more difficulty with his reply. He had some, as it was; so
much that he tried to turn the matter off.

"You are imagining things," he said. "Mr. Copley seems to me very much
what I have always known him."

"He does not seem to me as _I_ have always known him," said Dolly. "And
you are not saying what you are thinking, Mr. St. Leger."

"You are terribly sharp!" said he, to gain time.

"That's quite common among American women. Go on, Mr. St. Leger, if you
please."

"I declare, it's uncanny. I feel as if you could see through me, too.
And no one will bear such looking into."

"Go on, Mr. St. Leger," Dolly repeated with an air of superiority. Poor
child, she felt very weak at the time.

"I don't know what to say, 'pon my honour," the young man averred. "I
have nothing to say, really. And I am afraid of troubling you, besides."

Dolly could _not_ speak now. She preserved her calm air of attention;
that was all.

"It's really nothing," St. Leger went on; "but I suppose, really, Mr.
Copley may have lost some money. That's nothing, you know. Every man
does, now and then. He loses, and then he gains."

"How?" said Dolly gravely.

"Oh, well, there are various ways. Betting, you know, and cards.
Everybody bets; and of course he can't always win, or betting would
stop. That's nothing, Miss Copley."

"Have you any idea how much he has lost?"

"Haven't an idea. People don't tell, naturally, how hard they are hit.
I am sure it is nothing you need be concerned about."

"Are not people often ruined in that way?" Dolly asked, still
preserving her outside calm.

"Well, that does happen, of course, now and then, with careless people.
Mr. Copley is not one of that sort. Not that kind of man."

"Do not people grow careless, in the interest and excitement of the
play?"

St. Leger hesitated, and laughed a little, casting up his blue eyes at
Dolly as if she were a very peculiar specimen of young womanhood and he
were not quite sure how to answer her.

"I assure you," he said, "there is nothing that you need be concerned
about. I am certain there is not."

"Not if my father is concerned about it already?"

"He is not concerned, I am sure. Oh, well! there may be a little
temporary embarrassment--that can happen to any man, who is not made of
gold--but it will be all right. No