Page:Hard-pan; a story of bonanza fortunes (IA hardpanbonanza00bonnrich).pdf/141

Rh "Oh, she might n't know," he said; "it's so easy to fool women."

Letitia was silent for a moment. Then she commented, as if speaking to herself:

"I suppose it would be easy for her father to fool her?"

"Easy as lying."

"Do you suppose he borrows that way from other men?"

Tod directed upon her an incredulous side glance. Then, meeting the anxious inquiry of her eyes, he broke into a broad smile.

"Well, I should snicker," he said, in an amused tone.

The curtain rose here, and further dialogue was cut off, for Letitia was a lover of singing, and when the music began again, sank into a rapt and immovable silence. During the other entr'actes the conversation was general, and any more confidences on the subject of Colonel Reed and his daughter were impossible.

In the foyer, on the way out, the party became scattered. Crowds surging from the main aisle pressed forward and separated Mrs. Gault, her husband, and Pearl McCormick from the other three, who had stopped in an angle of space near the stairway for Letitia to adjust her cloak. As Gault was shaking it out preparatory to laying it across her shoulders, her attention was caught by the figures of Colonel