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 the ecstatic tone in which he had said it some two years before, but as though it were the grimmest of duties.

Rhoda sighed, as his mother had been wont to sigh on occasions when she felt the force of his stubbornness but was too fond of him to offend the pride which prompted his folly.

In the last few days, and tonight particularly, he had caught in Rhoda's regard a new light. It was as though she detected him in a role, without being able to challenge it at any point,—not that she would be cruel enough to do so, even if the clue had been in her hands. The old, girlish Rhoda might have been thoughtless enough to tweak him in a sensitive area, but not this womanly Rhoda.

"I have so many things to do there," he added, rather lamely.

They said good-night, having arranged that he would accompany her to the city in the morning, to look up sailings.

Late in the afternoon he called at Rhoda's office. For some minutes he was kept waiting in the reception room, and when he entered he found her in a state of wrath which transformed her. Jeanne, Marshall of France, thought Grover, with the battle in full swing.

"For God's sake, what's the matter?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing!" she said. "I've just had to fire a