"No. Is he at home?"
"He's here fast enough," was I. Tapp's ungracious rejoinder. "I supposed he'd come over to see you."
"Perhaps he has," she returned wickedly. "He is a very faithful knight."
"He's a perfect ninny, if that's what you mean," snapped the Taffy King. "He's made a fool of me, too. I shouldn't wonder if he knew this all along," and he shook the letter in his hand and scowled.
"You arouse my curiosity," Louise said. "I hope Lawford has done nothing more to cause you vexation."
"I don't know whether he has or not. The young upstart! I feel like punching him one minute, and then the next I've got to take off my hat to him, Miss Grayling. D'you know what he's done?"
"Something really fine, I hope. I do not think you wholly appreciate
Lawford, Mr. Tapp," the girl told him firmly.
"Ha! No. I s'pose he's got to go outside his immediate family to be appreciated," he snarled.
But at that Louise merely laughed. "You don't tell me what he has done," she urged.
"Why, the young rascal's solved a problem in mechanics that has puzzled us candy makers for years. I'm having a new cutting machine built after his suggestions."