In Her Own Right. Scott John Reed

      “You awful man!” cried Miss Carrington. “How could you do it!”

      “I think it was lovely – perfectly lovely!” exclaimed Miss Tilghman. – “Oh! that last hand was too funny for words. – If only you could have seen her face, Mr. Croyden.”

      “I didn’t dare!” laughed he. “One look, and I’d have given the whole thing away.”

      “She never suspected. – I tell you, she is as dense as asphalt,” said Miss Carrington. “Come, now we’ll have some Bridge.”

      “And I’ll try to observe the rule of eleven!” said Croyden.

      He lingered a moment, after the game was ended and the others had gone. When he came to say good-night, he held Miss Carrington’s slender fingers a second longer than the occasion justified.

      “And may I come again soon?” he asked.

      “As often as you wish,” she answered. “You have the advantage of proximity, at least.”

      VI

      CONFIDENCE AND SCRUPLES

      The next month, to Croyden, went pleasantly enough. He was occupied with getting the household machinery to run according to his ideas – and still retain Moses and Josephine, who, he early discovered, were invaluable to him; in meeting the people worth knowing in the town and vicinity, and in being entertained, and entertaining – all very quietly and without ostentation.