“Yes, he comes here now and then. I had dinner with him last night at the Sycamore and we went to the concert. I meant to tell you about him. He knows of you; he says he’s always stumbling into you in the patent office records.”
“Did Trenton say that?” asked Durland, greatly pleased.
“Yes; he spoke of you in the kindest way, father.”
“You don’t say! I wouldn’t have thought he’d ever heard of me. He’s in touch with all the big industrial concerns of the country,” said Durland. “I guess there is hardly a man whose word is worth more than Trenton’s. I read just the other day, in one of the trade journals, an address he made somewhere on shop efficiency. His opinions are quoted a good deal; he knows what he’s talking about.”
Her father’s manifestation of interest in a man so eminent in his own field did not prevent Ethel from taking advantage of Grace’s unexpected frankness to ask:
“Was it Mr. Trenton you were with at the theatre a few nights ago? One of the girls in the office said she saw you there with a very distinguished looking man.”
“The very same!” Grace replied promptly. “You know Mr. Trenton is awful keen about Mabel, so when she wrote him that I was at Shipley’s he came in to see me.”
Having gone so far with the imaginary niece she thought it best to endow her with a full name.
“Mabel Conwell is awfully nice, though you wouldn’t exactly call her pretty.”
“Does she live here?” asked Mrs. Durland.