“Is it necessary, Miss Prentice, that you have this money at once?”

Kate replied evenly:

“No—I can’t say that. Why?”

He hesitated and the color swept hotly over his face.

“It will be an accommodation to us if you will wait a few days.”

“In what way?”

Her calmness reassured him and he replied with a little less constraint:

“This is a large sum for a small bank, and I don’t mind telling you confidentially that the payment of this check will leave us a little—er—short.”

Kate raised her beautifully arched eyebrows and questioned:

“Yes?”