"is just who this Thayer girl is. It is important that we should
know, to go on with the - "

"We!" interrupted Cora. "Pray, who are `we'?"

"Why, my father's firm, the lawyers, you know," he stammered.
"Some day, Miss Kimball, I expect to represent the firm of Roland,
Reed & Company."

Cora turned and looked at him. It was on that very spot that she
had turned to Ed - Ed was so like this young man, the same dark,
handsome youth, and just about his age.

But Ed was, after all, so different - so very different.

Cora was gaining time as she strove to hold him by her magnetic
glance. Any youth would accept it; he did not despise it.

"Mr. Roland," she said, in her own inimitable velvet tones, "you
are making a very great mistake. If you really believe that
Cecilia Thayer had anything to do with the loss of that child's
book, you are wrong; if you think she had any other than humane
motives in visiting the child, you are wrong again. Cecilia
Thayer - "

"Oh, now come, Cora," he interrupted. "You don't mind me calling
you Cora? I know the whole scheme. Your brother Jack is - well,
he is quite clever, but not clever enough to cover up his tracks."
He grasped Cora's arm and actually dragged her to him. "Don't you
know that Cissy Thayer and Jack Kimball are suspected of