"She didn't permit it—she resented it."
"Because you went at it in the wrong way. Stephanie Lorraine is the easiest girl in the world to manage if you handle her right—but if you don't——" an expressive shrug ended the sentence. "I think she has become more so, since the Amherst affair—which is entirely natural."
"I know it. I should have made every allowance for her," Pendleton concurred. "I'll fix it up with her if she will let me."
Miss Chamberlain smiled satisfiedly.
"She will let you, never fear, as I said before." She drank the last of her tea and put down the cup. "I just learned today," she said, "that shortly after Stephanie's return a resolution was introduced, by one of Lorraine's friends on the Board of Governors, requesting her resignation; that after a desperate fight it was held over until the next meeting—when it was voluntarily withdrawn by the mover. Is it true?"
"It is true—but I didn't know it had got out," he answered.
"I heard it only this morning. It was pretty well kept—for a Board secret."
"Yes—about four weeks overtime. Why is it that some one on the Board always leaks?"
"Why is it that almost everyone on the Board leaks?" she amended. "Talk about women not being able to keep a secret. If there is anything more gossippy and leaky than a man's club, I should like to know it."
He smiled tolerantly, with a good-natured air.