comparative privacy of the Grayson family
circle or in the larger group of the young correspondents and
politicians. The "King" was delighted with the change, and his own
manner became easy and happy. He looked once or twice at the lady whom
he considered his mentor, Mrs. Grayson, and expected to see approval and
satisfaction on her face, too, but she was stern and impenetrable, and
the "King" said to himself that after all she was not so startlingly
acute.

Sylvia was telling some anecdote of the West to her new friends, and, as
the incident was rather remarkable, she thought it necessary to have
confirmation.

"It happened before I was born, but you were there then, and you know
all about it, don't you, daddy?"

"King" Plummer quickly nodded confirmation and smiled at the memory. The
event had interested him greatly, and he was glad to vouch for its
truth. He was pleased all the more when he saw the others looking at him
with the respect and deference due to--his thoughts halted suddenly in
their course and turned into another channel. Then he found himself
frowning. He did not like the conjunction of "dear old daddy" and of a
thing that had happened many years ago.

The "King" quietly slipped away from the party, and he noticed with
intense gloom that his departure did not seem to make as much difference
as it should. For a whole afternoon he was silent, and many corrugations
formed temporarily in his brow, indicating resolved thought. Nor were
appearances wrong, because the "King" was laboriously dragging himself
up to the edge of a mighty resolution. He was physically as brave a man
as ever walked; in early and rougher days he had borne a ready
Winchester, but this emergency was something new in his experience, and
naturally he hesitated at the venture. However, just after supper, when
Sylvia was alone in the drawing-room of the car, he approached her. She
looked up at him and smiled, but the "King's" face was set with the
power of his resolve.

"Come in, daddy," she said.

The "King" did not smile, nor did he sit down.

"Sylvia," he said, "I have a favor to ask of you."

"Why certainly, daddy, anything in reason, and I know you would not ask
anything out of it."

"Sylvia, I want you to promise me never to call me daddy again, either
in private, as here between ourselves, or before others."

She looked up at him, her eyes wide with astonishment.

"Why," she exclaimed, "I've called you that ever since