"Good evening, Miss Wayward." But, still holding the hand, he looked steadily at her and asked, "Who else is in there?"
"Who else?" repeated Alicia, raising her pretty dark eyebrows.
"Or were you whispering to yourself?" pursued the Mayor.
Alicia laughed and drew her hand away. "It's only Father Murray." Then, raising her voice a little: "You'll have to come in, Father Murray, to save my reputation. This is really all of us," she added, as the priest rather sheepishly presented himself. "You can search the room if you like."
She smiled at him in the manner which novelists commonly describe as roguish.
The Mayor smiled back at her, but he turned to the latest arrival.
"Were you in this plot, too, Father Murray?"
"Indeed he was," Alicia answered for him. "He didn't quite approve of it at first. But we quite easily converted him. So, you see, it can't be so black as it first seemed to you, Mr. Mayor. And really," she hurried on, "you ought to do as Miss Norman suggests. It's a splendid chance for you. To really be a--a Man, you know! And I can help."
"How can you help?" asked the Mayor.
"I am quite sure," said Alicia, "that I can get my father to subscribe quite a lot of money--a hundred thousand dollars, say--to your campaign fund--yours and Senator Norman's and the Reform League's."