Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/227

 "I was just ready to come," answered Terry. "Au revoir, Sir Ian."

She smiled at him in her sweet and friendly way, leaving him at once, and going in to Nora, who had already vanished from the door.

The girl was standing at the foot of the stairs, looking anxious and excited, her beautiful eyes very bright.

"I don't want to take you away from him," she apologized. "Only—if I might speak to you about something—something important to me, and then you could go back" "I don't need to go back," said Terry. "I would like to look at our rooms with you. Perhaps you ran down to tell me they weren't nice? If there's anything wrong, I can ask the landlord"

"Oh, no, the rooms are very nice," replied Nora. "You'll be angry, I'm afraid, but I got thinking after I went in and left you talking to Sir Ian; what if you would speak to him about my Ian, and"

"I didn't tell him," Terry broke in. "But suppose I had? Sir Ian was always his friend. You don't dream that his knowing would make the slightest difference?"

"Sir Ian wouldn't tell. I don't mean that," Nora explained. "But I'm sure Ian would hate to have him know he was here, and how. I thought perhaps you mightn't think it any harm to tell him—so I flew down, as soon as the idea came into my head, to beg you not."