"Does your daughter know anything of that affair?"
"Certainly not."
"Where is your son?"
"None of your business, sir!"
"I don't suppose there's any doubt in your mind of my affection for your daughter?"
"I suppose you do admire her," snapped the old man. "You can't help that, I suppose. No one can," he added naively.
"And I suppose you know that she loves me, in spite of your objections?" went on the young man.
"Bah! Bah!"
"And that you are breaking her heart by your mutton-headed objection to me?"
"You-you--" sputtered Mr. Meredith.
Dick was still calm.
"May I see Miss Meredith for a few minutes?" he went on.
"She won't see you, sir," stormed the irate parent. "She told me last night that she would never consent to see you again."
"Will you give me your permission to see her here and now, if she will consent?" Dick insisted steadily.
"She won't see you, I say."
"May I send a card to her?"
"She won't see you, sir," repeated Mr. Meredith doggedly.
Dick stepped out into the hall and beckoned to the maid.
"Please take my card to Miss Meredith," he directed.
The maid accepted the white square, with a little uplifting of her brows, and went up the stairs. Miss Meredith received it languidly, read it, then sat up indignantly.
"Dick Herbert!" she exclaimed incredulously. "How dare he come here? It's the most audacious thing I ever heard of! Certainly I will not see him again in any circumstances." She arose and glared defiantly at the demure maid. "Tell Mr. Herbert," she said emphatically, "tell him-that I'll be right down."
Chapter VII.
Mr. Meredith had stamped out of the room angrily, and Dick Herbert was alone when Dollie, in regal indignation, swept in. The general slant of her ruddy head radiated defiance, and a most depressing chilliness lay in her blue eyes. Her lips formed a scarlet line, and there was a how-dare-you-sir tilt to nose and chin. Dick started up quickly at her appearance.
"Dollie!" he exclaimed eagerly.
"Mr. Herbert," she responded coldly. She sat down primly on the extreme edge of a chair which yawned to embrace her. "What is it, please?"
Dick was a singularly audacious sort of person, but her manner froze him into sudden austerity. He regarded her steadily for a moment.
"I have come to explain why--"
Miss Dollie Meredith sniffed.
"I have come to explain," he went on, "why I did not meet you at the Randolph masked hall, as we had planned."
"Why you did not meet me?" inquired Dollie coldly, with a little surprised movement of her arched brows. "Why you did not meet me?" she repeated.
"I shall have to ask you to believe that, in the circumstances, it was absolutely impossible," Dick continued, preferring not to notice the singular emphasis of her words. "Something occurred early that evening which-which left me no choice in the matter. I can readily understand your indignation and humiliation at my failure to appear, and I had no way of reaching you that evening or since. News of your return last night only reached me an hour ago. I knew you had disappeared."
Dollie's blue eyes were opened to the widest and her lips parted a little in astonishment. For a moment she sat thus, staring at the young man, then she sank back into her chair with a little gasp.
"May I inquire," she asked, after she recovered her breath, "the cause of this-this levity?"
"Dollie, dear, I am perfectly serious," Dick assured her earnestly. "I am trying to make it plain to you, that's all."
"Why you did not meet me?" Dollie repeated again. "Why you did meet me! And that's-that's what's the matter with everything!"
Whatever surprise or other emotion Dick might have felt was admirably repressed.
"I thought perhaps there was some mistake somewhere," he said at last. "Now, Dollie, listen to me. No, wait a minute, please! I did not go to the Randolph ball. You did. You eloped from that ball, as you and I had planned, in an automobile, but not with me. You went with some other man-the man who really stole the gold plate."
Dollie opened her mouth to exclaim, then shut it suddenly.
"Now just a moment, please," pleaded Dick. "You spoke to some other man under the impression that you were speaking to me. For a reason which does not appear now, he fell in with your plans. Therefore, you ran away with him-in the automobile which carried the gold plate. What happened after that I cannot even surmise. I only know that you are the mysterious woman who disappeared with the Burglar."
Dollie gasped and nearly choked with her emotions. A flame of scarlet leaped into her face and the glare of the blue eyes was pitiless.
"Mr. Herbert," she said deliberately at last, "I don't know whether you think I am a fool or only a child. I know that no rational human being can accept that as true. I know I left Seven Oaks with you in the auto; I know you are the man who stole the gold plate; I know how you received the shot in your right shoulder; I know how you afterward fainted from loss of blood. I know how I bound up your wound and-and-I know a lot of things else!"
The sudden rush of words left her breathless for an instant. Dick listened quietly. He started to say something-to expostulate-but she got a fresh start and hurried on:
"I recognised you in that silly disguise by the cleft in your chin. I called you Dick and you answered me. I asked if you had received the little casket and you answered yes. I left the ballroom as you directed and climbed into the automobile. I know that horrid ride we had, and how I took the gold plate in the bag and walked-walked through the night until I was exhausted. I know it all-how I lied and connived, and told silly stories-but I did it all to save you from yourself, and now you dare face me with a denial!"
Dollie suddenly burst into tears. Dick now attempted no further denial. There was no anger in his face-only a deeply troubled expression. He arose and walked over to the window, where he stood staring out.
"I know it all," Dollie repeated gurglingly-"all, except what possible idea you had in stealing the miserable, wretched old plate, anyway!" There was a pause and Dollie peered through teary fingers. "How-how long," she asked, "have you been a-a-a-kleptomaniac?"
Dick shrugged his sturdy shoulders a little impatiently.
"Did your father ever happen to tell you why he objects to my attentions to you?" he asked.
"No, but I know now." And there was a new burst of tears. "It's because-because you are a-a-you take things."
"You will not believe what I tell you?"