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 The note of reproof was so clear in his tone that Austin, who had already felt himself antagonistic to the new bookkeeper, now found himself decidedly irritated.

"And may I ask," he said, "why you assumed that I was alone?" "I assumed it," began George, with the wild rush of a balky horse at a fence it doesn't mean to jump—"I assumed it because—" He stopped and began all over again. "I cannot associate myself with any institution without taking an interest in its welfare, and I must tell you—"

"Will you be so awfully good as to mind your own business?" said Austin. "There seems to be some misunderstanding. I hire you to run the books, not the school. If you don't like the way it's being done, you can always leave."

But the accountant had not so much liberty in this respect as Austin imagined.

Seeing the two men engaged in what for lack of a better word she called conversation, the little princess decided to escape before a worse thing happened to her, for she feared a second explosion on the part of George might involve her, too. She was softly opening the study door when Bevans stopped her.