"He scarcely knows him. He did not understand why Mr. Inwood never came to Hot Springs, or why I never again saw him. Probably he supposes I lost interest."
"So your father believes that you are all over that affair, doesn't he?"
"Yes; but he probably remembers that Mr. Inwood was to have come to Hot Springs, and didn't. Fathers usually remember such things, and sometimes ask why."
"Well, Christine," he said, smiling, "you'll have to fix it with your father; and I think you can."
"Why do you think so?"
"Because there is much of your father in you—steel under the velvet skin of that pretty figure, or I miss my guess."
The girl said thoughtfully: "I am, perhaps, more like father than Jack is.... That is not really what concerns me.... Has Mr. Inwood changed—in appearance?"
"Within a year? No! Nor otherwise, I'll wager."
"Do you—think——"
"I don't know; I don't know, little girl. Men are protean creatures; God knows what incarnation they'll assume next! ... But if a woman really cares for a man, and if he isn't in love with anybody else, it ought to be a cinch—even if he had as many incarnations as Albert Chevallier!"