Page:Hard-pan; a story of bonanza fortunes (IA hardpanbonanza00bonnrich).pdf/13



INNER was coming to an end. The Chinaman, soft-footed in his immaculate white, had just finished his circuit of the table, leaving a tiny gold-rimmed coffee-cup at each of the four plates. Into hers Letitia was lowering a lump of sugar, when a thought occurred to her, and she dropped the sugar into the cup with a little splash, and looking across at her vis-à-vis, said:

"Oh, John, I 've been going to ask you half a dozen of times, and have always forgotten: did you know that Colonel Ramsay Reed had a daughter?"

To see the effect of her question, she stretched forward a plump white hand and tilted to one side one of the pink silk petticoats that veiled the candle-flames. The obstruction removed, she looked with vivacious interest at the person to whom she had addressed her query. He, too,