"You could 'a' seen a Neapolitan woman yesterday, Cora," said
Hedrick, obligingly, "if you'd looked out the front window. She
was working a hurdy-gurdy up and down this neighbourhood all
afternoon." He turned genially to face his sister, and added: "Ray
Vilas used to say there were lots of pretty girls in Lexington."

Cora sprang to her feet. "You're not smoking," she said to Corliss
hurriedly, as upon a sudden discovery. "Let me get you some
matches."

She had entered the house before he could protest, and Hedrick,
looking down the hall, was acutely aware that she dived
desperately into the library. But, however tragic the cry for
justice she uttered there, it certainly was not prolonged; and the
almost instantaneous quickness of her reappearance upon the porch,
with matches in her hand, made this one of the occasions when her
brother had to admit that in her own line Cora was a miracle.

"So thoughtless of me," she said cheerfully, resuming her seat.
She dropped the matches into Mr. Corliss's hand with a fleeting
touch of her finger-tips upon his palm. "Of course you wanted to
smoke. I can't think why I didn't realize it before. I must
have----"

A voice called from within, commanding in no, uncertain tones.

"Hedrick! I should like to see you!" Hedrick rose, and, looking
neither to the right nor, to the left, went stonily into the
house, and appeared before the powers.