"Why, you old dear," she laughed, "don't you know that that's just the reason why I want to explore it! I want to know why it's 'Forbidden Ground'! Oh, surely—surely," she coaxed, "even if it is a work-room, there couldn't be any real sin in just prying a little?"
"No, of course, no real sin," I laughed back at her earnestness. "Just an indiscretion!"
Quite abruptly the May Girl relaxed her hug, and narrowed her lovely eyes dreamily to some personal introspection.
"I've—never yet—committed a real indiscretion," she confided with apparent regret.
"Well, pray don't begin," laughed George Keets in spite of himself, "by trying to explore something that isn't there."
"And don't you and Keets," flared Paul Brenswick quite unexpectedly, "by denying the existence of something that is there!"
"Well, if it is there to-day," argued George Keets, "it certainly wasn't there yesterday!"
"Well, if it wasn't there yesterday, it is at least there to- day!" argued Paul Brenswick.
"Rollins! Hi there—Rollins!" they both called as though in a single breath.
From his humble seat on the top stair to which he had wisely retreated at his first inkling of having so grossly outraged public opinion, Rollins's reply came wafting some what hopefully back.