waited after Aunt Lucile went up to bed for those two to come down.
Old Nat was fussing around the drawing-room, shutting up and putting
things to rights. Dad sent him to bed, too, told him we'd do the
locking up ourselves. I got the idea that he was expecting Paula to
come sailing down, with March, you know, and perhaps didn't want any
one around. So I made a bluff of going to bed myself. But he told me
to stick; said we'd settle down and have a smoke presently. I don't
know how long it was before we heard LaChaise and March coming but it
seemed a deuce of a while.

"Dad was right on the job then, calm as a May morning. He introduced
March and me and said something polite about his music, never a word
about his having been hiding all the evening.

"Then LaChaise spoke to dad in French. Said there was some business he
wanted to talk with him about and that he'd like an appointment. I wasn't
sure that dad quite got him so I crashed in and interpreted.

"Dad reached out and took hold of me, as if he was sort of glad that I
was there, and told me to tell Mr. LaChaise that we had plenty of time
right now, and if there was anything to discuss the sooner we got at it,
the better.

"I handed that on in French--I tried not to lose any of the kick out of
it--and while I was doing that March made a move to go.

"Dad told him not to. I wish you could have been there. I remember he
said after inviting him to stay, 'I imagine you are as much concerned in
this as any one.' It didn't faze March though. He said that he didn't
believe that what Mr. LaChaise had to say concerned him. Then he made a