“That’s quite enough,” said Leonore.  “I thought perhaps you didn’t want to be friends.  And as I like to have such things right out, I made papa bring me down this morning so that I could see for myself.”  She spoke with a frankness that seemed to Peter heavenly, even while he grew cold at the thought that she should for a moment question his desire to be friends.

“Of course you and Peter will be friends,” said Watts.

“But mamma told me last night—­after we went upstairs, that she was sure Mr. Stirling would never call.”

“Never, Dot?” cried Watts.

“Yes.  And when I asked her why, she wouldn’t tell me at first, but at last she said it was because he was so unsociable.  I shan’t be friends with any one who won’t come to see me.”  Leonore was apparently looking at the floor, but from under her lashes she was looking at something else.

Whatever Peter may have felt, he looked perfectly cool.  Too cool, Leonore thought.  “I’m not going to make any vows or protestations of friendship,” he said, “I won’t even pledge myself to come and see you, Miss D’Alloi.  Remember, friendship comes from the word free.  If we are to be friends, we must each leave the other to act freely.”

“Well,” said Leonore, “that is, I suppose, a polite way of saying that you don’t intend to come.  Now I want to know why you won’t?”

“The reasons will take too long to explain to you now, so I’ll defer the telling till the first time I call on you.”  Peter was smiling down at her.

Miss D’Alloi looked up at Peter, to see what meaning his face gave his last remark.  Then she held out her two hands.  “Of course we are to be the best of friends,” she said.  Peter got a really good look down into those eyes as they shook hands.

The moment this matter had been settled, Leonore’s manner changed.  “So this is the office of the great Peter Stirling?” she said, with the nicest tone of interest in her voice, as it seemed to Peter.

“It doesn’t look it,” said Watts.  “By George, with the business people say your firm does, you ought to do better than this.  It’s worse even than our old Harvard quarters, and those were puritanical enough.”

“There is a method in its plainness.  If you want style, go into Ogden’s and Rivington’s rooms.”

“Why do you have the plain office, Mr. Stirling?”

“I have a lot of plain people to deal with, and so I try to keep my room simple, to put them at their ease.  I’ve never heard of my losing a client yet, because my room is as it is, while I should have frightened away some if I had gone in for the same magnificence as my partners.”

“But I say, chum, I should think that is the sort you would want to frighten away.  There can’t be any money in their business?”

“We weren’t talking of money.  We were talking of people.  I am very glad to say, that with my success, there has been no change in my relations with my ward.  They all come to me here, and feel perfectly at home, whether they come as clients, as co-workers, or merely as friends.”