“It’s a perfect shame!” the girl said, indignantly.  “I shall tell father to fix it.  He fixes everything I ask him to.  He’s wonderful, as you probably know.”

“Inasmuch as I haven’t the faintest idea who he is—­”

“Why, he’s Colonel Cavendish!  I’m Josephine Cavendish.  I thought everybody knew me.”

Pierce could not restrain a start of surprise.  Very humbly he inquired: 

“Now that you understand who I am and what I’m charged with, do you want to—­know me; be friends with me?”

“We are friends,” Miss Cavendish warmly declared.  “That’s not something that may happen; it has happened.  I’m peculiar about such matters; I have my own way of looking at them.  And now that we’re friends we’re going to be friends throughout and I’m going to help you.  Come along and meet mother.”

“I—­don’t know how far my parole extends,” Pierce ventured, doubtfully.

“Nonsense!  There’s only one authority around here.  Father thinks he’s it, but he isn’t.  I am.  You’re my prisoner now.  Give me your word you won’t try to escape—­”

“Escape!” Pierce smiled broadly.  “I don’t much care if I never get out.  Prisons aren’t half as bad as they’re pictured.”

“Then come!”

CHAPTER XXV

“You really must do something for this boy Pierce Phillips.”  Mrs. Cavendish spoke with decision.

The newspaper which the colonel was reading was barely six weeks old, therefore he was deeply engrossed in it, and he looked up somewhat absentmindedly.

“Yes, yes.  Of course, my dear,” he murmured.  “What does he want now?”

“Why, he wants his liberty!  He wants this absurd charge against him dismissed!  It’s a shame to hold a boy of his character, his breeding, on the mere word of a man like Count Courteau.”

Colonel Cavendish smiled quizzically.  “You, too, eh?” said he.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Why, you’re the fourth woman who has appealed to me since his arrest.  I dare say I’ll hear from others.  I never saw a fellow who had the female vote so solidly behind him.  I’m beginning to regard him as a sort of domestic menace.”

“You surely don’t believe him guilty?”

When her husband refused to commit himself Mrs. Cavendish exclaimed, “Rubbish!”

“First Josephine came to me,” the colonel observed.  “She was deeply indignant and considerably disappointed in me as a man and a father when I refused to quash the entire proceedings and apologize, on behalf of the Dominion Government, for the injury to the lad’s feelings.  She was actually peeved.  What ails her I don’t know.  Then the Countess Courteau dropped in, and so did that ’lady dealer’ from the Rialto.  Now you take up his defense.”  The speaker paused thoughtfully for an instant.  “It’s bad enough to have the fellow hanging around our quarters at all hours, but Josephine actually suggested that we have him dine with us!”