run across him?"

"I will. He and Laurence--my second brother--are old cronies, and he
often drops in on us. I want you to know my brothers. They are both here
this evening."

"I have met the elder one, I suppose."

"No. That was a cousin, Lispenard Ogden. He spoke of meeting you. You
would be amused to hear his comment about you."

"Mr. Stirling doesn't like to have speeches repeated to him, Dorothy,"
said Miss De Voe.

"What do you mean?" asked Dorothy, looking from one to the other.

"He snubbed me the other evening when I tried to tell him what we heard,
coming out of the convention last autumn," explained Miss De Voe,
smiling slightly at the thought of treating Peter with a dose of his own
medicine.

Peter looked at Miss De Voe. "I hope you don't mean that?"

"How else could I take it?"

"You asked me if I wished something, and I merely declined, I think."

"Oh, no. You reproved me."

"I'm very sorry if I did. I'm always blundering."