surprised.

A far cry, indeed, from the celebrated dowager, friend of diplomats and
presidents, to Miss Cooney of Saltman's bookstore, in a three-year-old
skirt. And how like Hen, instead of quietly looking the other way, to
yell out some Cooneyesque greeting and wave that perfectly absurd
umbrella....

To Hen it was, a day or two later, that Carlisle mailed the two
Settlement checks, hers for a hundred and Hugo's for ten times that
amount. She licked the stamp with intense satisfaction. However, the
rewards of her generosity seemed somewhat flat. Hen, indeed, called her
up immediately upon receipt of her communication, and contents noted,
with excited thanksgiving. However, that was all: the checks were turned
over to Mr. Dayne, and there the matted ended. Carlisle was oppressed
with a sense of anti-climax. She even thought of sending another and
larger check straight to Dr. Vivian.

Canning, it developed rather to Carlisle's surprise, took his business
quite seriously. His indolences of the sick-leave period were now
sloughed from him. He had returned this time, not merely with his
favorite car and mechanic for the afternoon excursions, but accompanied
by mysterious "papers" and a man stenographer; and, occupying rooms in
the New Arlington Hotel, gave his mornings and even some of his evenings
religiously to work.

"Why, Hugo, are you a _lawyer?_" cried Carlisle, when he first explained
these matters to her.

"I am, and a pretty keen one," said he.

"And do you know how to reorganize _banks?_"

"I can reorganize 'em like the devil," said Hugo sincerely; for if a man
does not want a woman to boast a little before now and then, he does not
want her at all....

His papers and his telegrams, his periods of engrossment in business and
telephone-calls from his secretary, seemed to invest him with a certain
new dignity. A subtle change in his manner was now perceptible. It was
as if he had moulted some of the gay plumage of the wooing-season, and
unconsciously begun to gather something of the authority of the coming
head of a great house. Like many men who have long enjoyed but eluded
the wiles of lovely woman, Canning clearly contemplated the married
estate with profound gravity. In his absence he had communicated his
good news to both his parents, though one was in Boston and the other,
his father, in Washington: testifying, in short, before a Congressional
Investigation Committee. He was not especially detailed