Page:Chipperfield--Unseen Hands.djvu/47

Rh "Christine, who was named after her mother, is twenty-two, and Nan is just twenty."

"Any love affairs?"

The attorney hesitated.

"I believe there is a sort of bread-and-butter flirtation going on between Nan and a good-looking boy whose people have the house on the avenue next door. The Meade house is on the corner. Tad Traymore—his father is old Thaddeus Traymore of the Palladium Trust Company—is just out of the university and starting to read law, so there isn't much chance of the affair assuming the status of an engagement now."

"And the other daughter?"

A full minute passed before Titheredge replied.

"That is another source of worry to Lorne. She has recently become quite infatuated with a man much older than herself named Drew. His antecedents are irreproachable and he is still received in the best society, but his past—well, it hasn't been one that would render him suitable as a husband for a girl like Christine."

"Not Farley Drew who was named in the Gael divorce case?" The detective's tone had sharpened slightly.

Titheredge nodded.

"That's the chap. His people left him fairly well off; but he squandered all he had long ago, and it is Christine's money that he is after, of course, although she is a beautiful girl. Drew is not the sort of man to be attracted by unsophistication."

"I'll tell the world that!" Odell commented with emphasis. "He may be received by the best society, but he'll be received by us, too, down at Headquarters if he doesn't watch