M. I emphasized a small but important word--'if.'
I now commend it to you still more emphatically. You know I prefer
Mr. M. Therefore you will do well to heed my caution. Mr. M. may lose
everything within a brief time."
Miss Wildmere frowned and bit her lip with vexation. Then her white
face took on hard, resolute lines. "I came near making a fool of
myself this afternoon," she muttered. "I was more than once tempted to
let Graydon speak. Heavens! I'd like to be engaged to him for awhile.
Mr. Arnault plays a bold, steady hand, but he's the kind of man that
might throw up the game if one put tricks on him. My original policy
is the best. I must pit one against the other in a fair and open suit
till I can take my choice. Now that it is clear that Graydon cares
little for that hideous thing he calls his sister, my plan is safe."
"What a lovely color you have, Madge!" Graydon remarked, as they met
at supper. "You are unequalled in your choice of cosmetics."
"Not to be surpassed, at any rate."
"Where did you get it?"
"Up at Grand View."
"What, have you climbed that mountain?"
"It's not much of a mountain."
"It's a tremendous mountain," cried little Harry. "Aunt Madge's been
teaching us to climb, and she lifted us up and down the steep places
as if we were feathers, and she told us stories about the squirrels
and birds we saw up there.
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