Then, Clavering, who could not hear what she was saying, flicked the horses and the sleigh slid away into the darkness.
A moment or two later, while the men still lingered talking without and Larry stood putting on his furs in the room, Breckenridge saw Miss Muller, who had been gazing at the money rise, and as though afraid her resolution might fail her, hastily thrust it into the stove.
“You are right,” he said. “That was an abominably unfair shot of Clavering’s, Larry. Of course, you couldn’t answer him or tell anybody, but it’s horribly unfortunate. The thing made the impression he meant it to.”
“Well,” said Larry bitterly, “I have got to bear it with the rest. I can’t see any reason for being pleased with anything to-night.”
Breckenridge nodded, but once more a little twinkle crept into his eyes. “I scarcely think you need worry about one trifle, any way,” he said. “If you think Miss Torrance or Miss Schuyler wanted Clavering to drive them, you must be unusually dense. They only asked him to because they have a sense of fairness, and I’d stake a good many dollars on the fact that when Miss Schuyler first saw him she was convulsed with laughter.”
“Did Miss Torrance seem amused?” Grant asked eagerly.
“Yes,” said Breckenridge decisively. “She did though she tried to hide it. Miss Torrance has, of course, a nice appreciation of what is becoming. In fact, her taste is only slightly excelled by Miss Schuyler’s.”
Grant stared at him for a moment, and then for the first time, during several anxious months, broke into a great peal of laughter.