mer and took a long walk into the woods and had some lemonade on
the porch while we waited for the car on our way back. Well, we went
in there and this time it was champagne----"

"Bella! You didn't, did you?"

"Of course I did! Why not?"

"It doesn't seem to me quite a--a nice thing for a girl to do, Bella."

"Oh, nonsense, Harry! What's the matter with it? Anyway, there wasn't
anything the matter with the champagne; nor with the rest of our ride
either. We went to the Macfarlane place and circled round it and he
told me some of the things he is going to do there, and then we did
some speeding that was--oh, Harry, we fairly flew! It was just grand!
And I guess my tongue went, too, for he talked and laughed and was as
gay as could be. I forgot all about poor mother until we sighted home
again. But I never had such a good time in all my life."

CHAPTER IX

BATTLING WITH THE INVISIBLE

It seemed to his secretary the next day that Felix Brand was in a
calmer mood. She had become accustomed to read with ease his tell-tale
countenance, through which shone so plainly his states of mind and
feeling, and the first anxious glance she cast upon him with her
morning greeting relieved her forebodings of another trying day.

The signs of inward struggle were no longer manifest, though the same
dogged resolution still sharpened the lines of his face, and it was
evident that he was more able to concentrate himself upon his work
than he had been for many days. Whatever the trouble was that had
barked and snapped so incessantly about him that his combat with it
had distracted his attention and engrossed his energies, for the
present at least, it seemed to be cast aside. In the late afternoon
Henrietta heard him make an engagement over the telephone with
Mildred Annister.

Before he left the office, as he was signing the letters she had
typed, he stopped over one, after writing his name, and considered it
for a moment. It was concerned with an effort he was making to get
control of the marble quarry in which he was interested.

"No," he said, "I'll leave this matter until tomorrow. Please call my
attention to it in the morning, if I should happen not to think of it.
And there are some books, here is a list of them, which I should like
to have here, ready to consult, the first thing tomorrow. You may send
the boy for them now and leave them on my desk. These two he may buy,
but the others have him get from the library.