“Yes; come along; it’s only a step to the hotel where Miss Bassett is staying,” said Harwood, finding that they blocked the entrance and not seeing his way to abandoning Allen on the spot.  He never escaped the appeal that lay in Allen; he was not the sort of fellow one would wound; and there could be no great harm in allowing him to walk a few blocks with Marian Bassett, who had so managed the situation as to make his elimination difficult.  It was a cold, clear night and they walked briskly to the Whitcomb.  When they reached the hotel, Dan, who had left the conversation to Marian and Allen, breathed a sigh that his responsibility was at an end.  He and Allen would have a walk and talk together, or they might go up to the Boordman Building for the long lounging parleys in which Allen delighted and which Dan himself enjoyed.  But Dan had not fully gauged the measure of Marian’s daring.

“Won’t you please wait a minute, Mr. Harwood, until I see if poor mama needs anything.  You know we all rely on you so.  I’ll be back in just a moment.”

“So that’s Morton Bassett’s daughter,” observed Allen when Marian had fluttered into the elevator.  “You must have a lot of fun taking her about; she’s much more grown-up than I had imagined from what you’ve said.  She’s almost a dangerous young person.”

The young men found seats and Allen nursed his hat musingly.  He had nothing whatever to do, and the chance meeting with Harwood was a bright incident in a bleak, eventless day.

“Oh, she’s a nice child,” replied Harwood indifferently.  “But she finds childhood irksome.  It gives her ladyship a feeling of importance to hold me here while she asks after the comfort of her mother.  I suppose a girl is a woman when she has learned that she can tell a man to wait.”

“You should write a book of aphorisms and call it ’The Young Lady’s Own Handbook.’  Perhaps I ought to be skipping.”

“For Heaven’s sake, don’t!  I want you as an excuse for getting away.”

“I think I’d better go,” suggested Allen.  “I can wait for you in the office.”

“Then I should pay the penalty for allowing you to escape; she can be very severe; she is a much harder taskmaster than her father.  Don’t desert me.”

Allen took this at face value; and it seemed only ordinary courtesy to wait to say good-night to a young woman who was coming back in a moment to report upon the condition of a sick mother.  In ten minutes Marian reappeared, having left her wraps behind.

“Mama is sleeping beautifully.  And that’s a sign that she’s better.”

Here clearly was an end of the matter, and Dan had begun to say good-night; but with the prettiest grace possible Marian was addressing Allen:—­

“I’m terribly hungry and I sent down an order for just the smallest supper.  You see, I took it for granted that you would both be just as hungry as I am, so you must come and keep me company.”  And to anticipate the refusal that already glittered coldly in Dan’s eye, she continued, “Mama doesn’t like me to be going into the restaurant alone, but she approves of Mr. Harwood.”