“Oh,” she said at last, “I don’t believe that it’s possible to play safe in love.  It’s a risk, but it’s one of those risks you haven’t much choice about taking.  Life and death are like that, too.  I don’t think it pays to be always thinking about avoiding risks.  Nothing, you know,” she added, as if she were letting him in to rather a horrid little secret, “is really safe.”  And evidently glad to change the subject, she went on, “What will her family say?”

“I can’t think they will be pleased.”

“I suppose not.  Who are they?”

Wayne explained the family connections, but woke no associations in his mother’s mind until he mentioned the name of Farron.  Then he was astonished at the violence of her interest.  She sprang to her feet; her eyes lighted up.

“Why,” she cried, “that’s the man, that’s the company, that Marty Burke works for!  O Pete, don’t you think you could get Mr. Farron to use his influence over Marty about Anita?”

“Dear mother, do you think you can get him to use his influence over Mrs. Farron for me?”

Marty Burke was the leader of the district and was reckoned a bad man.  He and Mrs. Wayne had been waging a bitter war for some time over a young inebriate who had seduced a girl of the neighborhood.  Mrs. Wayne was sternly trying to prosecute the inebriate; Burke was determined to protect him, first, by smirching the girl’s name, and, next, by getting the girl’s family to consent to a marriage, a solution that Mrs. Wayne considered most undesirable in view of the character of the prospective husband.

Pete felt her interest sweep away from his affairs, and it had not returned when the telephone rang.  He came back from answering it to tell his mother that Mr. Lanley, the grandfather of his love, was asking if she would see him for a few minutes that afternoon or evening.  A visit was arranged for nine o’clock.

“What’s he like?” asked Mrs. Wayne, wrinkling her nose and looking very impish.

“He seemed like a nice old boy; hasn’t had a new idea, I should say, since 1880.  And, Mother dear, you’re going to dress, aren’t you?”

She resented the implication.

“I shall be wonderful,” she answered with emphasis.  “And while he’s here, I think you might go down and tell this news to Lily, yourself.  Oh, I don’t say she’s in love with you—­”

“Lily,” said Pete, “is leading far too exciting a life to be in love with any one.”

Punctually at nine, Mr. Lanley rang the bell of the flat.  He had paused a few minutes before doing so, not wishing to weaken the effect of his mission by arriving out of breath.  Adelaide had come to see him just before lunch.  She pretended to minimize the importance of her news, but he knew she did so to evade reproach for the culpable irresponsibility of her attitude toward the young man’s first visit.

“And do you know anything more about him than you did yesterday?” he asked.