"You have some acquaintances in California,
I suppose?" she said, with an air of
laborious indifference.

"Well,--yes; I believe I have," Freeman
admitted.

"Have they lived there long?"

"No; not over a few months. I accidentally
heard from a person in Panama. I
dropped a line to say I might turn up."

"She----you haven't had time to get an
answer, then?"

Freeman inhaled a deep breath through
his cigarette, tilted his head back, and
allowed the smoke to escape slowly through
his nostrils. In this manner, familiar to his
deep-designing sex, he concealed a smile.
Grace was, in some respects, as transparent
as she was subtle. So long as the matter in
hand did not touch her emotions, she had no
difficulty in maintaining a deceptive surface;
but emotion she could not disguise, though
she was probably not aware of the fact; for
emotion has a tendency to shut one's own
eyes and open what they can no longer see