and his eyes as dark and unsmiling as ever, he said

"Pretty girl, Ella--isn't she?"

"She is more than pretty, she is beautiful," Dunn answered with an
emphasis that made Deede Dawson look at him sharply.

"Think so?" he said, and gave his peculiar laugh that had so little
mirth in it. "Well, you're right, she is. He'll be a lucky man
that gets her--and she's to be had, you know. But I'll tell you
one thing, it won't be John Clive."

"I thought it rather looked," observed Dunn, "as if Miss Cayley
might mean--"

Deede Dawson interrupted with a quick jerk of his head.

"Never mind what she means, it'll be what I mean," he declared. "I
am boss; and what's more, she knows it. I believe in a man being
master in his own family. Don't you?"

"If he can be," retorted Dunn. "But still, a girl naturally--"

"Naturally nothing," Deede Dawson interrupted again. "I tell you
what I want for her, a man I can-trust-trust-that's the great thing.
Some one I can trust."

He nodded at Dunn as he said this and then walked off, and Dunn
felt very puzzled as he, too, turned away.