Probably that suggestion was what made her smile at him now, so reflectively.
“That is, if Colonel Duane is willing to be bothered with me,” went on the boy, still eagerly. “I can’t trust you, Miss Frink. I won’t have the old gentleman bound hand and foot and thrown down at my feet.”
This egregious remark touched Miss Frink’s sense of humor. She laughed spontaneously. The implication of her power pleased her no less than that of her devotion to this dastardly, double-faced youth.
“You just mind your own business, Hugh,” she returned. “You shall see the Colonel to-day.”
“I should love to walk over there with him,” said Adèle.
“I believe you,” replied Miss Frink, “but do you know Colonel Duane?”
“Why, no, but—”
“I think another arrangement would be better,” said Miss Frink, and, turning, went into the house.
Adèle pretended to shiver. “Oh, she does sit on me so hard!” she cried, then she dropped back into the porch seat and continued her gay badinage with Hugh, the undercurrent of her thought triumphing over her difficult hostess, inasmuch as she knew her to be a dupe and could reveal it, at any time.
John Ogden watched the young woman uneasily. It was evident that she was doing her best to attract Hugh.