"Whenever it is a question of Steele," said Embry smoothly, "I am at any one's disposal. You know that I, too, have pledged myself to drive him out of the country. As for your calling upon me too frequently …"
He broke off abruptly, lifting his piercing eyes to hers.
"Dear lady," he continued softly, "the one thing I ask in the world is the joy of serving you. You have come to know that, haven't you? I have never known a woman like you, no surprising thing since there never was another like you created! I thank God that for a little you and I have had one common interest; if I could dare hope that always we might have our interests in common … Because I have not babbled of it, have you failed to know, Beatrice?"
Beatrice stared at him half incredulously, flushed and turned away. She was suddenly uncomfortable under eyes grown ardent; a few months sooner, a month, even, she might have been pleased … she wasn't sure, but she might have been pleased to hear such words from him. But now, for no particular reason to which she could lay her mind, she was both uncomfortable and disappointed.
Some day, no doubt, when the right time came and brought with it the right man, she would marry as did other girls. If in an hour of cool thought she had asked herself which one of the men she knew was the logical husband for her she would have perhaps singled out Joe Embry. He was of her class, of her station, be was one upon whom she came as near leaning as she
