Miss Irwin rose and put her letter in the drawer of the desk. "I wish you'd go—both of you," she said quietly. But Wray had made himself comfortable in a chair and showed no disposition to move.
"I thought you might like to ride out to the 'Lone Tree,'" he said. "You know Mr. Bent has leased it to me?"
"Yes, he told me."
"What else did he tell you?"
"Oh, I say, Wray," Bent broke in, "I don't see how that can be any affair of yours."
Jeff Wray wrapped his quirt around one knee and smiled indulgently. "Doesn't seem so, does it, Bent?" he said coolly. "But it really is. You see, Camilla—Miss Irwin—and I have been friends a long time—as a matter of fact, we're sort of engaged——"
"Jeff!" gasped the girl. The calmness of his effrontery almost, if not quite, deprived her of speech. "Even if it were true, you must see that it can hardly interest——"
"I thought that he might like to know. I haven't interfered much between you two, but I've been thinking about you some. I thought it might be just as well that Mr. Bent understood before he went away."
Camilla started up, stammered, began to speak, then sank in her chair again. Bent looked coolly from one to the other.
"There seems to be a slight difference of opinion," he said.