“No?”

“She’s from some place out West.  Father owned several big ranches.  She says that explains her crudeness.  Her crude?  I should say not!  They don’t grow better manners right here in New York.  And she’s pretty, and clever, and utterly naive about everything in New York.  Though I must say,” Dick added, “that I’m not so keen about her cousin and her uncle.  I’d met the cousin a few times the last year or two around town; he belongs here.  The two are the sort of poor stock that crops out in every good family.  They’ve got one merit, though:  they don’t try to impose on her too much.”

“What is your Miss Cameron doing in New York?”

“Having her first look at the town before going to some resort for the summer; perhaps taking a cottage somewhere.  I say, Captain”—­leaning closer—­“I wish you didn’t feel you had to stick around this apartment so tight.  I’d like to take you out and introduce you to her.”

Larry could imagine the resulting scene if ever this innocently proposed introduction were given.

“I guess that for the present I’ll have to depend upon your reports, Dick.”

“Well, you can take it from me that she’s just about all right!”

It was Larry’s strange instinct to protect Maggie that prompted his next remark: 

“You’re not just out joy-riding, are you, Dick?”

Dick flushed.  “Nothing of that sort.  She’s not that kind of girl.  Besides—­I think it’s the real thing, Captain.”

The honest look in Dick’s eyes, even more than his words, quieted Larry’s fear for Maggie.  Presently Dick walked out leaving Larry yet another problem added to his life.  He could not let anything happen to Maggie.  He could not let anything happen to Dick.  He had to protect each; he had to do something.  Yet what could he do?

Yes, this certainly was a problem!  He paced the room, another victim of the ancient predicament of divided and antagonistic duty.

CHAPTER XIX

The night of Larry’s unexpected call upon her at the Grantham, Maggie had pulled herself together and aided by the imposing Miss Grierson had done her best as ingenue hostess to her pseudo-cousin, Barney, and her pseudo-uncle, Old Jimmie, and to their quarry, Dick Sherwood, whom they were so cautiously stalking.  But when Dick had gone, and when Miss Grierson had withdrawn to permit her charge a little visit with her relatives, Barney had been prompt with his dissatisfaction.

“What was the matter with you to-night, Maggie?” he demanded.  “You didn’t play up to your usual form.”

“If you don’t like the way I did it, you may get some one else,” Maggie snapped back.

“Aw, don’t get sore.  If I’m stage-managing this show, I guess it’s my business to tell you how to act the part, and to tell you when you’re endangering the success of the piece by giving a poor performance.”