"You don't know what this means to me!" he went on, his glowing,
unsmiling eyes fixed on her. "A lady's drawing-room! A lamp with a
soft, pretty shade!--and you--like that! I--I wasn't prepared for it!"

Colina laughed softly. She was filled with a great tenderness for him,
therefore she could jeer a little.

Ambrose had not moved from the spot where she found him.

"It's not fair," he went on. "You don't need that! It bowls a man
over."

This was the ordinary language of gallantry--yet it was different.
Colina liked it. "Come on," she said lightly, "father is like a bear
when he is kept waiting for dinner!"

The two men shook hands in a natural, friendly way. With another man
Ambrose was quite at ease. Colina approved the way her youth stood up
to the famous old trader without flinching. They took places at the
table, and the meal went swimmingly.

Ambrose, whether he felt his affable host's secret animosity and was
stimulated by it, or for another reason, suddenly blossomed into an
entertainer. When her father was present he addressed Colina's ear,
her chin or her golden top-knot, never her eyes.

John Gaviller apparently never looked at her either, but Colina knew he
was watching her closely. She was not alarmed. She had herself well
in hand, and there was nothing in her politely smiling, slightly
scornful air to give the most anxious parent concern.