“That you l-l-like him so much?”
Dorothy laughed aloud, but nodded emphatically. “I l-l-like him just as much as that,” she mocked. “And if it’s only my father’s money in the way——”
“And your own. You really will be rich when you are twenty-one,” Tavia reminded her. “I tell you, that young man was troubled a heap when he learned from me that you were so well off. If you had been a poor girl—if you had been me, for instance—he would never have left New York City without knowing his fate. I could see it in his eyes.”
“Oh, Tavia!” gasped Dorothy, with clasped hands and shining eyes.
“My dear,” said her friend, with serious mouth but dancing orbs. “I never would have thought it possible—of you. ‘Love like a lightning bolt’—just like that. And the cautious Dorothy!” Then she went on: “But, Dorothy, how will you ever find him?”
“You have done your best, Tavia,” her friend said, nodding. “I suppose I might have tried Lance Petterby, too. But now I shall put Aunt Winnie’s lawyers to work out there. If possible, Mr. Knapp must be found before those real estate sharks buy his land. But if the transaction is completed, we shall have to reach him in some other way.”
“Dorothy! You sound woefully strong-minded. Do you mean to go right after the young man—just as though it were leap year?” and Tavia giggled.
“I hope,” said Dorothy Dale, girl of to-day that she was, “I have too much good sense to lose the chance of showing the man I love that he can win me, because of any foolish or old-fashioned ideas of conventionalities. If Garry Knapp thinks as much of me as I do of him, his lack of an equal fortune sha’n’t stand in the way, either.”
“Oh, Doro! it sounds awful—but bully!” Tavia declared, her eyes round. “Do you mean it?”
“Yes,” said Dorothy, courageously.