Henrietta was gone, running down the stairs. She need not have hurried so, for Dick was late. He was so late that she had become hotly impatient and then angry with him. Indeed, she was just going away, hurt and angry, when Dick appeared, hurrying as if he were pursued by devils and smiling propitiatingly.
"I'm awfully sorry to be so late, Henrietta," he began. "I simply could not get away from those two bores. I came just as soon as I could without throwing them out of the office."
Henrietta's anger was dissolved like a morning mist. "Who was it, Dick?"
"The Carling twins. It took them a long time to say what they wanted to, for you know they still stutter."
"I've never seen them, although I've heard of them. What were they trying to say?"
"Oh, I don't know. To tell the truth, I was so afraid of being late that I didn't pay as much attention as I ought to have."
This confession would have been a great comfort to the Carlings, for they had taken especial pains and made this trip for the sole purpose of seeing Dick. What they had to say concerned Charlie Ladue. It is not to be supposed that they would be so concerned about the acts of Charlie Ladue, if he were the only one. But his acts would involve Sally, sooner or later, and, so long as that was inevitable, it had better be sooner. In fact, the sooner the better. And, each of the Carlings knowing a thing or two, as was to be expected of them, they had had a long deliberation on the subject, only the night before.
"S—s—ssomeb—b—body ought t—to kn—n—now ab—bout it," Harry observed. "I w—w—wouldn't b—bother m—myself ab—b—out wh—wh—what t—that l—l—lemon of a k—kid d—did 'f—f it w—wasn't for S—S—Sally. D—d—don't l—like t—to b—be the one t—to t—tell on h—h—him, b—but wh—wh—who d—does? Wh—wh—who'll we t—tell? Th—that's the q—q—question."
"C—c—can't t—tell S—S—Sally," Horry remarked.
"C—c—course we c—c—can't," Harry replied scornfully. "An—ny f—f—fool'd kn—n—now th—that."