“I do. With any woman you have as much boldness as a canary bird, my dear. What I object to, Dan, is the fact that you are not perfectly safe with Tamea, and we might as well have an understanding regarding her now as later. If you’re to be her guardian you cannot afford to let her vamp you. As one of your very oldest and dearest friends I’m going to take the liberty of painting you a picture of the future. I feel certain you cannot see the future clearly, Dan, or else you refuse to see it. May I speak very plainly, Dan?”
“What’s the use, Maisie? Mel has already painted me the same picture and I disagree with his color tones. I think I know what I am doing and I think, also, that one of the rarest gifts God ever grants to civilized woman is a nicely balanced diplomacy. They have too much or too little.”
It was Maisie’s turn to flush now—with embarrassment and anger. The flush departed, leaving her pale and trembling. “The first bearer of unwelcome news hath but a losing office,” she forced herself to say. “Are you driving back to town in the morning, Dan?”
He nodded.
“I think it would be just as well if you took Tamea with you,” Maisie continued icily. “Aunt and I will remain here for a few weeks. I do not feel quite up to the task of helping you with Tamea when you decline to help me to help you to help her.”
“Oh, Maisie, I’m sorry——”
“Of course you are. And you’ll be much sorrier some day, old dear. I may not have much of a gift for diplomacy, Dan, but it does not require the gift of second sight to see that you are madly infatuated with this girl, and common sense is as far from an infatuated man as the north pole from the south. When you come to your senses send for me—should you feel that you need me. Meanwhile—good night and—good-by until we meet again.”
He was furious. He had assimilated smilingly one terrific blow from Maisie within the past twelve hours and now he was forced to assimilate another. He rose and bowed to Maisie with polite frigidity.
“You are perfectly right, Maisie,” he assured her. “I am, beyond question, the most monumental ass in all California. Fortunately for both of us, I was just about to inform you that Tamea has consented to enter a convent immediately; consequently she no longer assumes the proportions of a white elephant to both of us. I shall take her home with me tomorrow and place her in school the day after. I am deeply grateful to you for all that you have done for me in this emergency, Maisie, and I am sincerely sorry my conduct has been displeasing to you. It has been eminently satisfactory to myself! Good night and—since I shall not see you before I leave tomorrow morning—au revoir. When I need you again I shall not, however, send for you. I am already too deep in your debt. Good night.”
Maisie managed her leave-taking admirably. A little nod, a cold and twisted smile—and she was gone. The instant the elevator deposited her on her floor, however, she fairly ran to her room, nor did she observe that the door to Tamea’s room was opened ever so little; that Tamea’s eye was at that crack and that the tears that rained down Maisie’s cheeks had not escaped that keen scrutiny.