and Valerie was delighted to see that he was not in the least upset.
“Well, upon my soul, Barrington, what are you doing there?”
Dane’s hands were black and there was a streak of grease where he had flipped a fly off his nose. But he was simple and self-possessed as he looked up at Valerie’s father, and not disturbed by the question he thought he saw in his eyes.
“I’m the engineman at present,” he said. Then he scrambled to his feet and bowed gravely without speaking as Valerie introduced him to the Bishop, who had never met him.
“I’ve got at the trouble, I think, Miss Carr. I’ll have her going in less than ten minutes.”
Valerie had not written of any change in the office, and it happened that her father had not heard of any, but Dane wondered at once if he had come up because he had, and saw by his next words he had not.
“How do you come to be here, anyway?” Davenport Carr asked it very lightly, as if it did not matter in the least.
“I’m writing the leaders till Lorrimer comes back.”
“Oh, are you? Will you dine with us at Mac’s? I’m going to the hospital first with the Bishop, but I will be back by seven.”
“Thanks, I will.”
Jimmy came up to Valerie and told her that a buggy had stopped in the front. Nodding pleasantly to the staff Davenport Carr led the way to the office.
II
Dane was waiting down-stairs in the hotel when Michael
