As Miss Chandler left the drawing-room she encountered her adoptive father.
"Are you really ready for once on time?" he asked. "I am glad of that, as I have a special reason for wishing to be early."
"You surely would not think of going yet? Why, there will be no one there at all."
"That is precisely the reason that I wish to go at once. Now, you know perfectly well that there is nothing that puts me so thoroughly out of humor as contradiction, so for Heaven's sake! leave it off for once and come immediately! You will find that they are expecting us early, and besides that, some one always has to be the first!"
Seeing that Leonard Chandler was in no mood to stand opposition, Miss Chandler uttered a sigh and ran lightly up the stairs.
"What shall I do?" she asked of herself, when she was securely in her own room. "Ben surely meant by his message that I was not to leave those two alone there; but even should I go, what could I do against them both?
"Plainly there is but one course, and that is to go to the reception, slip out when I return, and go to that house.
"I don't know what Ben meant, but he certainly did not send me that message for fun. I cannot see what he expected me to do! That is what puzzles me! What in Heaven's name has ever made him such a fool? He has risked everything, and perhaps lost me the stakes for which I have ventured so much. Curse him! I knew he would do this sooner or later, but there was no chance to act without him.
"And now, to please that old fool down-stairs I have got to go to that reception and smile and chatter while my thoughts are occupied with the hideous danger that threatens me.
"If I could but see Ben for five minutes and know how things stand! But that is not even to be thought of! I am afraid of—— Heavens! I dare not think what!"