he license?" she laughed.
"We'll have to be married on the way to the train." "Cora!" he
gasped. "You angel!"

"I'll wait here for you," she smiled. "There won't be too much
time."

He obtained a moderate control of his voice and feet.
"Enfield--that's my cashier--he'll be back from his lunch at
one-thirty. Tell him about us, if I'm not here by then. Tell him
he's got to manage somehow. Good-bye till I come back Mrs.
Trumble!"

At the door he turned. "Oh, have you--you----" He paused
uncertainly. "Have you sent Richard Lindley any word about----"

"Wade!" She gave his inquiry an indulgent amusement. "If I'm not
worrying about him, do you think you need to?"

"I meant about----"

"You funny thing," she said. "I never had any idea of really
marrying him; it wasn't anything but one of those silly
half-engagements, and----"

"I didn't mean that," he said, apologetically. "I meant about
letting him know what this Pryor told you about Corliss, so that
Richard might do something toward getting his money back. We ought
to--"

"Oh, yes," she said quickly. "Yes, that's all right."

"You saw Richard?"

"No. I sent him a note. He knows all about it by this time, if he
has been home this morning. You'd better start, Wade. Send a
messenger to our house for my bag. Tell him to bring it here and
then take a note for me. You'd really better start--dear!"

"_Cora_!" he shouted, took her in his arms, and was gone. His
departing gait down the corridor to the elevator seemed, from the
sounds, to be a gallop.

Left alone, Cora wrote, sealed, and directed a note to Laura. In
it she recounted what Pryor had told her of Corliss; begged Laura
and her parents not to think her heartless in not preparing them
for this abrupt marriage. She was in such a state of nervousness,
she wrote, that explanations would have caused a breakdown. The
marriage was a sensible one; she had long contemplated it as a
possibility; and, after thinking it over thoroughly, she had
decided it was the only thing to do. She sent her undying love.

She was sitting with this note in her hand when shuffling
footsteps sounded in the corridor; either Wade's cashier or the
messenger, she supposed. The door-knob turned, a husky voice
asking, "Want a drink?" as the door opened.

Cora was not surprised--she knew Vilas's office was across the
hall from that in which she waited--but she was frightened.

Ray stood blinking at her.

"What are you doing here?" he