Argyl ran to him and threw her arms about his neck.
"God bless you, daddy!" she cried, softly. "I just love you to death. And," holding him away from her and smiling brightly at him, "I don't think that it is necessary. I slapped him hard!"
Conniston came back into the room.
Argyl was speaking swiftly, emphatically. "Mr. Hapgood has just done me the honor to ask me to marry him. He told me that he had acquainted Mr. Conniston with his intentions, so it is no secret. No, I did not slap him for that. But you, father, and you, too, Mr. Conniston, since you are one of us in our work, ought both to know what he threatened. He says that we are upon the very brink of failure; that Swinnerton has almost sufficient strength to ruin us and our hopes. And he threatened, if I did not marry him, to turn his back upon us and join the opposition. And I slapped his face."
Mr. Crawford took her hand and kissed it.
"I can think of no more forceful answer you could have made him, Argyl girl. Fortunately, I have not confided in him to any dangerous extent. He knows—"
"He knows," she cried, quickly, "all that you have let Mr. Winston know! Everything you have told your lawyer—"
She paused, hesitating. Mr. Crawford looked at her sharply.
"What?" he demanded, a vague hint of anxiety in his tone.
"He knows—for he told me—the exact condition of your finances."