"I called in reference to this suit, which Miss Agnes Lynch threatens to bring against my client, General Hastings."

Mary regarded the attorney with a level glance, serenely expressionless as far as could be achieved by eyes so clear and shining, and her voice was cold as she replied with significant brusqueness.

"It's not a threat, Mr. Irwin. The suit will be brought."

The lawyer frowned, and there was a strident note in his voice when he answered, meeting her glance with an uncompromising stare of hostility.

"You realize, of course," he said finally, "that this is merely plain blackmail."

There was not the change of a feature in the face of the woman who listened to the accusation. Her eyes steadfastly retained their clear gaze into his; her voice was still coldly formal, as before.

"If it's blackmail, Mr. Irwin, why don't you consult the police?"

she inquired, with manifest disdain. Mary turned to the maid, who now entered in response to the bell she had sounded a minute before. "f.a.n.n.y, will you ask Miss Lynch to come in, please?" Then she faced the lawyer again, with an aloofness of manner that was contemptuous. "Really, Mr.

Irwin," she drawled, "why don't you take this matter to the police?"

The reply was uttered with conspicuous exasperation.

"You know perfectly well," the lawyer said bitterly, "that General Hastings cannot afford such publicity. His position would be jeopardized."

"Oh, as for that," Mary suggested evenly, and now there was a trace of flippancy in her fashion of speaking, "I'm sure the police would keep your complaint a secret. Really, you know, Mr. Irwin, I think you had better take your troubles to the police, rather than to me. You will get much more sympathy from them."

The lawyer sprang up, with an air of sudden determination.

"Very well, I will then," he declared, sternly. "I will!"

Mary, from her vantage point at the desk across from him, smiled a smile that would have been very engaging to any man under more favorable circ.u.mstances, and she pushed in his direction the telephone that stood there.

"3100, Spring," she remarked, encouragingly, "will bring an officer almost immediately." She leaned back in her chair, and surveyed the baffled man amusedly.

The lawyer was furious over the failure of his effort to intimidate this extraordinarily self-possessed young woman, who made a mock of his every thrust. But he was by no means at the end of his resources.

"Nevertheless," he rejoined, "you know perfectly well that General Hastings never promised to marry this girl. You know----" He broke off as Aggie entered the drawing-room,

Now, the girl was demure in seeming almost beyond belief, a childish creature, very fair and dainty, guileless surely, with those untroubled eyes of blue, those softly curving lips of warmest red and the more delicate bloom in the rounded cheeks. There were the charms of innocence and simplicity in the manner of her as she stopped just within the doorway, whence she regarded Mary with a timid, pleading gaze, her slender little form poised lightly as if for flight

"Did you want me, dear?" she asked. There was something half-plaintive in the modulated cadences of the query.

"Agnes," Mary answered affectionately, "this is Mr. Irwin, who has come to see you in behalf of General Hastings."

"Oh!" the girl murmured, her voice quivering a little, as the lawyer, after a short nod, dropped again into his seat; "oh, I'm so frightened!"

She hurried, fluttering, to a low stool behind the desk, beside Mary's chair, and there she sank down, drooping slightly, and catching hold of one of Mary's hands as if in mute pleading for protection against the fear that beset her chaste soul.

"Nonsense!" Mary exclaimed, soothingly. "There's really nothing at all to be frightened about, my dear child." Her voice was that with which one seeks to cajole a terrified infant. "You mustn't be afraid, Agnes.

Mr. Irwin says that General Hastings did not promise to marry you. Of course, you understand, my dear, that under no circ.u.mstances must you say anything that isn't strictly true, and that, if he did not promise to marry you, you have no case--none at all. Now, Agnes, tell me: did General Hastings promise to marry you?"

"Oh, yes--oh, yes, indeed!" Aggie cried, falteringly. "And I wish he would. He's such a delightful old gentleman!" As she spoke, the girl let go Mary's hand and clasped her own together ecstatically.

The legal representative of the delightful old gentleman scowled disgustedly at this outburst. His voice was portentous, as he put a question.

"Was that promise made in writing?"

"No," Aggie answered, gushingly. "But all his letters were in writing, you know. Such wonderful letters!" She raised her blue eyes toward the ceiling in a naive rapture. "So tender, and so--er--interesting!"

Somehow, the inflection on the last word did not altogether suggest the ingenuous.

"Yes, yes, I dare say," Irwin agreed, hastily, with some evidences of chagrin. He had no intention of dwelling on that feature of the letters, concerning which he had no doubt whatsoever, since he knew the amorous General very well indeed. They would be interesting, beyond shadow of questioning, horribly interesting. Such was the confessed opinion of the swain himself who had written them in his folly--horribly interesting to all the reading public of the country, since the General was a conspicuous figure.

Mary intervened with a suavity that infuriated the lawyer almost beyond endurance.

"But you're quite sure, Agnes," she questioned gently, "that General Hastings did promise to marry you?" The candor of her manner was perfect.

And the answer of Aggie was given with a like convincing emphasis.

"Oh, yes!" she declared, tensely. "Why, I would swear to it." The limpid eyes, so appealing in their soft l.u.s.ters, went first to Mary, then gazed trustingly into those of the routed attorney.

"You see, Mr. Irwin, she would swear to that," emphasized Mary.

"We're beaten," he confessed, dejectedly, turning his glance toward Mary, whom, plainly, he regarded as his real adversary in the combat on his client's behalf. "I'm going to be quite frank with you, Miss Turner, quite frank," he stated with more geniality, though with a very crestfallen air. Somehow, indeed, there was just a shade too much of the crestfallen in the fashion of his utterance, and the woman whom he addressed watched warily as he continued. "We can't afford any scandal, so we're going to settle at your own terms." He paused expectantly, but Mary offered no comment; only maintained her alert scrutiny of the man. The lawyer, therefore, leaned forward with a semblance of frank eagerness. Instantly, Aggie had become agog with greedily blissful antic.i.p.ations, and she uttered a slight e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n of joy; but Irwin paid no heed to her. He was occupied in taking from his pocket a thick bill-case, and from this presently a sheaf of banknotes, which he laid on the desk before Mary, with a little laugh of discomfiture over having been beaten in the contest.

As he did so, Aggie thrust forth an avaricious hand, but it was caught and held by Mary before it reached above the top of the desk, and the avaricious gesture pa.s.sed un.o.bserved by the attorney.

"We can't fight where ladies are concerned," he went on, a.s.suming, as best he might contrive, a chivalrous tone. "So, if you will just hand over General Hastings' letters, why, here's your money."

Much to the speaker's surprise, there followed an interval of silence, and his puzzlement showed in the knitting of his brows. "You have the letters, haven't you?" he demanded, abruptly.

Aggie coyly took a thick bundle from its resting place on her rounded bosom.

"They never leave me," she murmured, with dulcet pa.s.sion. There was in her voice a suggestion of desolation--a desolation that was the blighting effect of letting the cherished missives go from her.

"Well, they can leave you now, all right," the lawyer remarked unsympathetically, but with returning cheerfulness, since he saw the end of his quest in visible form before him. He reached quickly forward for the packet, which Aggie extended willingly enough. But it was Mary who, with a swift movement, caught and held it.

"Not quite yet, Mr. Irwin, I'm afraid," she said, calmly.

The lawyer barely suppressed a violent e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n of annoyance.

"But there's the money waiting for you," he protested, indignantly.

The rejoinder from Mary was spoken with great deliberation, yet with a note of determination that caused a quick and acute anxiety to the General's representative.

"I think," Mary explained tranquilly, "that you had better see our lawyer, Mr. Harris, in reference to this. We women know nothing of such details of business settlement."

"Oh, there's no need for all that formality," Irwin urged, with a great appearance of bland friendliness.

"Just the same," Mary persisted, unimpressed, "I'm quite sure you would better see Mr. Harris first." There was a cadence of insistence in her voice that a.s.sured the lawyer as to the futility of further pretense on his part.

"Oh, I see," he said disagreeably, with a frown to indicate his complete sagacity in the premises.

"I thought you would, Mr. Irwin," Mary returned, and now she smiled in a kindly manner, which, nevertheless, gave no pleasure to the chagrined man before her. As he rose, she went on crisply: "If you'll take the money to Mr. Harris, Miss Lynch will meet you in his office at four o'clock this afternoon, and, when her suit for damages for breach of promise has been legally settled out of court, you will get the letters.... Good-afternoon, Mr. Irwin."

The lawyer made a hurried bow which took in both of the women, and walked quickly toward the door. But he was arrested before he reached it by the voice of Mary, speaking again, still in that imperturbable evenness which so rasped his nerves, for all its mellow resonance. But this time there was a sting, of the sharpest, in the words themselves.