Long stared irresponsibly at the floor. "I am glad we have been able to talk this over without pa.s.sion. You have not obliged me to use any coa.r.s.e authority, or any influence except your own sane judgment. We have been unsentimental men. You have confessed to nothing more than a liking for a pretty girl. You have committed yourself to nothing."
The doctor paused, resting his hands firmly on the table between them.
He read the young man"s face eagerly, and he felt sure that he had gained his point.
"Now, go," he continued kindly, "and G.o.d-speed to you! Go in to win!"
He turned. Long rose mechanically as if ordered by a superior, opened the door, and disappeared into the dark hall. The doctor listened for the sound of his footsteps. When he heard the tread on the ground beneath the office window, he sighed and stepped out into the hall.
His daughter was standing in the doorway at the farther end, as if looking for some one.
"Where is Mr. Long, papa?"
"He has gone."
The doctor"s voice dwelt slightly on the last word. The girl glanced at him sharply, and then turned back into the lighted drawing-room.
"Dinner is waiting, Jarvis," Mrs. Thornton spoke from a lounge within the room. "Why didn"t you keep Mr. Long?"
The doctor walked over to his wife and stood for a moment by her side.
She smiled in further interrogation; the doctor bent and kissed her.
"Long didn"t care to stay," he replied. Then he went back to his patient.
THE IVORY SERIES
AMOS JUDD. By J. A. Mitch.e.l.l Editor of "Life"
IA. A Love Story. By Q [Arthur T. Quiller-Couch]
THE SUICIDE CLUB By Robert Louis Stevenson
IRRALIE"S BUSHRANGER By E. W. Hornung
A MASTER SPIRIT By Harriet Prescott Spofford
MADAME DELPHINE By George W. Cable
ONE OF THE VISCONTI By Eva Wilder Brodhead
A BOOK OF MARTYRS By Cornelia Atwood Pratt
A BRIDE FROM THE BUSH By E. W. Hornung
THE MAN WHO WINS By Robert Herrick
AN INHERITANCE By Harriet Prescott Spofford
_Other Volumes to be announced_