“No, she mustn’t; and, Jack, there’s something else.” It seemed natural now to call him Jack.
“Yes, Jean?” He lingered on the word. How near it brought him!
Her eyes told him that she, too, felt the nearness, but for the moment her brain was working too swiftly to yield to aught else.
“There’s the peddler. One can’t tell where he is, but not far away. I’m sure of that. He won’t finally go till he has that which he came for. Where is it now?”
“Behind the panel.”
“But if you do what I suggest, and to-night, it should be on the desk beside you.”
“Beside me?”
“Yes, if you—if you take the part of my father.”
He caught his breath at this supreme courage. “Would you come and arrange the study?”
“Yes, when?”