"Of course I will; but what help can I give, as you have ordered things?"
"There are ever so many things to do which I couldn't do, and shouldn't even know how to go about: seeing publishers and printers, and all that kind of work."
"All that I'll do with pleasure; and I am only sorry that you limit me to that. May I ask, Miss Grey, how old are you?"
"What on earth has that to do with the matter? Shall you have to give the publishers a certificate of my birth?"
"No, it's not for that. But you seem to me a very young woman, and yet you order people and things as if you were a matron."
Minola smiled and colored a little. "I have lived an odd and lonely sort of life," she said, "and never learned manners; perhaps that is the reason. If I don't please you, Mr. Heron—frankly, I shan't try."
There was something at once constrained and sharp in her manner, such as Heron had not observed before. She seemed changed somehow as she spoke these unpropitiatory words.
"Oh, you do please me," he said; "sincere people always please me. Remember that I too admire the 'Misanthrope.'"
"Yes, very well; I am glad that you agree to my terms—and we are fellow-conspirators?"
"We are—and——"