"Go and get him!" said her father quite sharply. 7
With unquestioning obedience the girl started for the door. Half way across the rug she stopped and swung round squarely.
"He will say it was all his fault," she said. "But it wasn't! I— I sort of dared him to do it!"
"Just a minute!" called her father. "When you come back with him——"
"Am I to come back with him?" protested the girl.
"When you come back with him——" repeated her father, "if I ask him to be seated you may leave the room at once—at once, you understand? But if I shouldn't ask him to sit down——"
"Then I am to stay and—see it through?" shivered the girl.
"Then you are to stay and see it through," said her father.
With a little soft thud the door shut between them.
When it opened again the man was still standing by the fireplace blowing gray smoke into space. With a casualness that savored 8 almost of affectation he stopped to light another cigarette before glancing up half askance to greet the hesitant footstep on the threshold.