'You won't tell mamma?'
'Not if you can go on managing it all right.'
Connie kissed him again. Then she, in her turn, looked at the clock.
'May I say that Mr. Chance has been gone ever so long, and that you made me stay with you?'
'Yes,' said Fricker, rather amused.
'Good-night, you darling,' cried Connie, and danced out of the room.
'Rum creatures!' ejaculated Fricker. 'She's got a head on her shoulders, though.'
On the whole he was well pleased. But he had the discernment to wonder how Beaufort Chance would feel about the matter the next morning. He chuckled at this idea at first, but presently his peculiar smile regained its sway—the same smile that he wore when he considered the case of Trix Trevalla and Glowing Stars.
'What Beaufort thinks of it,' he concluded as he went up to bed, 'won't be quite the question.'
He found Mrs. Fricker not at all displeased with Connie.