might very naturally have got herself into shape again and smoothed out
the creases, at least so far to try some further defence."

"It seems that she hasn't," Verrian said, still darkly, but not so
frowningly.

"I should have fancied," his mother suggested, "that if she had wanted to
open a correspondence with you--if that was her original object--she
would not have let it drop so easily."

"Has she let it drop easily? I thought I had left her no possible chance
of resuming it."

"That is true," his mother said, and for the time she said no more about
the matter.

Not long after this he came home from the magazine office and reported to
her from Armiger that the story was catching on more and more with the
best class of readers. The editor had shown Verrian some references to
it in newspapers of good standing and several letters about it.

"I thought you might like to look at the letters," Verrian said, and he
took some letters from his pocket and handed them to her across the
lunch-table. She did not immediately look at them, because he went on to
add something that they both felt to be more important. "Armiger says
there has been some increase of the sales, which I can attribute to my
story if I have the cheek."

"That is good."