Leaning over, she patted the Judge's hand. "Don't have me on your mind, Father darling. Go ahead and enjoy the Governor as much as you can. I am easy to amuse, you know, and besides, I have my own particular iron in the fire to-night."
"You are never without expedients, my child, but I hope this one has no bearing on Vetch."
"Oh, but it has. Like Esther, the queen, I have put on royal apparel for an ulterior object. Did you notice that I had made myself as terrible as an army with banners?"
"I thought you were looking unusually lovely," replied the Judge gracefully. "But you are always so handsome that I suspected no guile."
Corinna laughed merrily. "But I am full of guile, dear innocent! I go forth to conquer."
"Not the Governor, I hope?"
"Oh, no, the Governor is nothing—a prize, nothing more. My antagonist is Mrs. Stribling."
"Rose Stribling?" The Judge was mildly astonished. "Why, I remember her as a little girl in white dresses."
Corinna's smile became scornful. "Well, she isn't a little girl any longer, and she oughtn't to be in white dresses."
"Dear me, dear me," rejoined the old gentleman. "I am aware that you have a dramatic temperament, but it is scarcely possible that you are jealous of little Rose. She is a good deal younger than you, if I am not mistaken—but my memory is not all that it once was."