“I’d as well be frank with you, Kate. Overman is coming to this house too often. I was shocked beyond measure when I failed to find you in your accastomed seat on the Sunday of the dedication of the Temple. I was told you were in the gallery with him.”

She straightened herself up suddenly.

“You took the pains to find that out?”

“Yes.”

She fixed on him a look of scorn.

“And stooped to ask an usher instead of asking me? You, who boldly say to the world that I am your free comrade, the mate and equal of man?”

“An odd way you took to show comradeship in such an hour,” he answered, doggedly.

“Am I a slave, to sit in solemn rapture at your feet and await your nod?”

“You seemed to eagerly await the nod of another man to-night.”

She laughed.