pains put the finishing touches to her pretty hair, and took a last
survey of her dainty person before the well-known step should sound on
the stone staircase outside their unpretentious litte door.

She had been very irritable with the invalid, because he was trying to
get a plan copied quickly, and wanted a special arrangement of light,
just when she was ready to go and dress after preparing the dinner; but
when at last Dudley knocked on the door, Doris opened it to him with a
face of such charming innocence and smiles that irritability would
never have been imagined in the répertoire of her characteristics. A
little helpless, a little childish, she might be, but what clever man
does not love a clinging woman?

"It was so nice of you to come," she said. "It is such a dreary place
to turn out to after your long day at the office."

"But I love coming," he answered simply. "You know I do."

He looked at her with unconscious admiration, and Doris noted for the
hundredth time that although he was not particularly tall, nor
particularly good-looking, nor particularly anything, yet his thin,
clean-shaven face had a clever, distinguished air, and he had
unmistakably the cut and breeding of a gentleman. She knew that even
if he were only moderately well off, and could not afford the dash she
loved, he was at least good to be seen with, and a man who might one
day make his mark. So, though she deprecated most of the qualities
which were in reality his best points, she decided in her calculating
little head she would seriously contemplate becoming Mrs. Dudley
Pritchard.