"I suppose the wire's from Miss Stephen?"
The page nodded and Walters gave him twenty-five cents. "Well, if you can wait a little, I'll have a message to send; it will save you a journey."
The boy hesitated; but the money banished his doubts. "All right; you'd better get it written. The freight's nearly due."
Walters went to Lawrence's room before he wrote the telegram, and met Lucy again at dinner. There were only two tables in use in the large dining-room, and the waiter sent him to Mrs. Stephen's. Lucy wondered whether Walters had arranged this with the man beforehand, but it gave her an opportunity of watching him and she did not object. She admitted that he had nerve and tact, for although she feared him and her mother shared her distrust, he was able to banish the constraint both felt and amuse the party. Lucy could not tell what Lawrence thought, but he laughed at the other's stories and now and then bantered him.
After dinner Walters left them and when they went; to Mrs. Stephen's sitting-room Lucy remarked rather sharply: "You seemed to find Walters amusing!"
"He is amusing," Lawrence answered. "In fact, the fellow puzzles me."
"You mean he couldn't talk in that good-humored, witty way if he had plotted to leave you on the couloir?"
"Well," said Lawrence, "I suppose I did feel something of the kind."
"I don't know that it's very logical," Lucy rejoined, hiding her alarm.
"You agreed with Foster's conclusions when he was here."
"I did, to some extent. The way Jake argued out the matter made things look pretty bad."