Entering the outer room, he paused before Miss Lacey to give his message, and she lifted a small paper parcel that lay in her lap.
"Don't be worried about your handkerchief," she said. "I'm going to take it home and wash it."
"Oh, I beg you won't trouble yourself," exclaimed the young man.
"I shall. You soiled it for me."
Dunham bit his lip. The query flitted through his mind as to whether Miss Lacey had ever been successfully contradicted.
"When Sir Walter Raleigh flung down his coat for a queen to walk upon, history doesn't say that Elizabeth sent it to the dry-cleaners," he remarked.
"That just shows how different two old maids can act," returned Miss Lacey.
Dunham laughed and bowed. "I don't believe the difference would continue throughout," he said. "I fancy you and Queen Bess have lots of points in common."
With this he took his departure, and Martha Lacey rose and passed into the inner room where Judge Trent waited, grimly wondering at that burst of laughter which he saw reflected on his visitor's lips as she entered.
She advanced and shook hands with him. "How do you do, Calvin? That isn't any fool you've taken into your office."