Page:The traitor; a story of the fall of the invisible empire (IA traitorstoryoffa00dixo).pdf/201

 "I have the papers all spread out here ready for you."

"Pardon me, if I look about the room a moment," John said with deep emotion. "You see I haven't been in this room before for years. I spent many happy hours in it, in the old days."

"I hope this will not be the last time you will enter, now that we are going to be friends. When we have time you must take me all through in every nook and corner—show me all the secret closets and dark passageways and tell me its history."

"Yes, of course"—he answered with an absent look.

"I don't believe you were listening to what I said at all," she exclaimed with mock anger. "A penny for your real thoughts!"

"May I be bold enough to tell you just what I was thinking?"

"Yes."

"I was thinking," he said with a sober smile, "what a beautiful picture you make in this old oak panelled room. The delicate lines of your face seem at home here as though the master workman who carved the figure in that mantel had seen you in a vision while he was at work."

"What a dreamer you are!" she laughed.

"And you are willing to trust me as a lawyer?"