must meet this crisis. "Paul won't stand for it!" he declared.

"Well, Paul will just have to stand for it!" retorted Mrs.
Vance.

With a murmur of sympathy she crossed to Vera. "I'm not going to
see our Vera disappointed," she announced. "She never sees no
company. Vera, if Mr. Winthrop comes when that bunch is here,
I'll show him into the front parlor."

Vera sat down in front of the piano and let her fingers drop
upon the keys. The look of eagerness and anticipation had left
her eyes.

"Oh, I don't know," she said, "that I want to see him -- now."

With complete misunderstanding, Mannie demanded truculently,
"Why not?" His loyalty to Vera gave him courage, in her behalf,
to face even a District Attorney. "He doesn't think he's coming
here to make trouble for you, does he?"

Vera shook her head and, bending over the piano, struck a few
detached chords.

"Oh, no," she said consciously; "just to see me --
professionally -- like everybody else."

Mabel could no longer withhold her indignation at the obtuseness
of the masculine intellect.