"
"What delicious soup!" Bryce murmured blandly. "Miss Sumner, may I
have a cracker?"
The dinner passed pleasantly; the challenge and defiance between
guest and host had been so skillfully and gracefully exchanged that
Shirley hadn't the slightest suspicion that these two well-groomed
men had, under her very nose, as it were, agreed to be enemies and
then, for the time being, turned their attention to other and more
trifling matters. Coffee was served in the living room, and through
the fragrant smoke of Pennington's fifty-cent perfectos a sprightly
three-cornered conversation continued for an hour. Then the Colonel,
secretly enraged at the calm, mocking, contemplative glances which
Bryce ever and anon bestowed upon him, and unable longer to convince
himself that he was too apprehensive--that this cool young man knew
nothing and would do nothing even if he knew something--rose, pleaded
the necessity for looking over some papers, and bade Bryce good-
night. Foolishly he proffered Bryce a limp hand; and a demon of
deviltry taking possession of the latter, this time he squeezed with
a simple, hearty earnestness, the while he said:
"Colonel Pennington, I hope I do not have to assure you that my visit
here this evening has not only been delightful but--er--instructive.
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