"Oh, Pete, my darling," she said, "I think I've spoiled everything."

His heart stood still. He knew better than most people that his mother
could either make or mar.

"They won't hear of it?"

She nodded distractedly.

"I do make such a mess of things sometimes!"

He put his arm about her.

"So you do, Mother," he said; "but then think how magnificently you
sometimes pull them out again."




CHAPTER V


Mr. Lanley had not reported the result of his interview immediately. He
told himself that it was too late; but it was only a quarter before
eleven when he was back safe in his own library, feeling somehow not so
safe as usual. He felt attacked, insulted; and yet he also felt vivified
and encouraged. He felt as he might have felt if some one, unbidden, had
cut a vista on the Lanley estates, first outraged in his sense of
property, but afterward delighted with the widened view and the fresher