"Then we ought to ask for nothing more."
"If he stood alone. Unfortunately he doesn't."
Arlt raised his brows.
Thayer untied his necktie with a long, deliberate pull, and made a second attempt to arrange it to his liking. At length he turned from the mirror and faced Arlt.
"Would you be willing to allow Katarina to take such a risk?"
"No," Arlt answered honestly, after an interval.
Neither man spoke for some time. Arlt was unwilling to continue the subject, and Thayer knew from experience the uselessness of trying to force him to talk when he was minded to keep silence. It was Arlt, however, who finally broke the silence, and his subject was one utterly remote from Lorimer.
"I have heard from the mother, to-day," he said suddenly.
"Good news, I hope." Thayer's tone was as hearty as if he had felt no passing annoyance at the boy's stubborn reticence.