Page:The council of seven.djvu/72

 remote voice. "Dear fellow, he's down and out already."

For one vital instant Helen's heart seemed to miss its beat. The will must not accept this ukase, but an all-powerful instinct might dethrone it. Not for nothing had this man earned his name. Caught and pinned by his eyes she read what was behind them. Even to the acute, balanced brain of Helen at this moment he began to seem one with destiny itself.

Shivering with an emotion very close to terror she was unable to move until his eyes let her go. Then she got up from her chair.

"Take a few days before you really decide." Quite suddenly his voice changed altogether. "If you are writing, give my love to the old people in the old home."

No other man would have dared that touch of audacity, of jejune cynicism. Helen knew that well enough, yet it didn't make her fear of him less.

Returning no answer for there was none she could give, she asked a question of routine and then, feeling like one over whom a whirlwind had swept, she went to the door.

"Do you mind asking Mr. Gage to come?"

The Chief's reassumption of a formal tone helped her to a becoming exit.