CHAPTER XIII.

"Lowell!"

"Yes, sir!"

"What are you doing?"

"Answering that batch of letters that came by the morning delivery."

"Well, stop! I'm tired of it. It seems to me that you do nothing eternally but work from morning until night!"

The sweet face was lifted, all dimpled with smiles.

"Was not that what you engaged me for?"

"Not exclusively. I don't want any fellow to make himself a slave for me. Are you going to the Dorlans to-night?"

"No, sir."

"Why?"--testily.

"Well, I don't know any one, sir, and it did not seem to me that I should be missed. It was very kind of Mr. Dorlan to ask me, but I did not think that he expected me to accept. He only did it because he thought you would like it."

"Then you acknowledge that you have not as much consideration for my feelings as he has."

"I don't see how you make that, sir."

"He, you say, invited you because I wanted him to, and you won't go, knowing that I am very anxious that you should!"

"I did not know that, sir!"

"Well, you know it now. Are you going?"

"Not if you will excuse me."

"I will not press you if you wish that I should not. By the way, Lowell, won't you have a cigar?"

The silver case was lifted and held upward for the young man to select one to his own liking. Half a dozen dimples played about his pretty mouth as Neil Lowell suppressed an outright laugh.

"I never smoke, thank you, sir," he answered.

"What? Oh, hang it, I always forget you are only a boy. You have so few of the frivolities of youth that I can never seem to remember that you are not an old man. I have no prejudice against smoking, though, for old or young, if not carried to excess. You must learn. It is a great comfort, and----"

Andrew Pryor paused as the door of his study was thrown open without permission, and Alice, his youngest daughter, entered.

"Papa," she cried enthusiastically, "I have just had a letter from Edith. It has been delayed somehow upon the road, and I find by comparing the dates that she will be here to-night. Isn't that just perfectly lovely? She said it would be impossible for her to tell exactly by what train she would arrive, but that we need not trouble to meet her, as her cousin would be with her, and he could bring her to the house at once, but that she would arrive in time for dinner! I am so pleased!"

She threw her arms around the old gentleman's neck, and proceeded to half suffocate him in her demonstrations of joy.

"Gwen is as happy as I am," she continued, her black eyes dancing with delight. "I have already planned a thousand different things for her entertainment. The dinner to-night must be just lovely. Don't you think I had better invite a few people, impromptu, don't you know?"

"I dare say that would be very pleasant, but I am going to Dorlan's to a stag dinner," returned Pryor sheepishly, as though knowing that his absence from home would be regarded very much as a crime.

"Oh, papa!"

The pretty face fell, the corners of the little mouth were drawn downward, and the tiny hand fell from his shoulder.

"Now then--now then!" cried Pryor, rising and patting her cheeks lightly. "You need not look as though I had locked you up in the closet. This dinner has been arranged for a week, and I could not possibly decline. But that need not hinder your arrangements at all, for Lowell will be here, and he can act in my place. I shall perhaps be able to make my own excuses before I leave, and just authorize him to do the honors. I don't think I would ask any one but Edith's cousin, then you can make a little family dinner of the first one."

"And are you not going to the stag dinner, Mr. Lowell?" asked Miss Pryor, lifting her sweet eyes to his face, glowing with good humor again.

"No."

"That is just lovely of you. I should kiss you if I dared."

"I shall not resist in the least," laughed Neil.

"Well, some other time! Then we shall have the family dinner to-night. Oh, I shall be so glad to see Edith! I do wonder what her cousin is like? I hope he will be pleasant and companionable for you, Mr. Lowell."

"That is very kind of you, Miss Alice, but I much prefer the society of the ladies."

"Right again, Lowell! Gad! you are the most sensible boy I ever saw!" exclaimed Mr. Pryor admiringly.

"Then we may count upon you for dinner to-night, Mr. Lowell?" interrupted Alice.

"I am always at your service, Miss Alice."

"That is so good of you. But there is one warning that I have to give you. Don't fall in love with Edith. She is already engaged, but the greatest little flirt in existence."

"I am not susceptible, Miss Alice. If I had been----"

A look completed the sentence, a look that brought the quick color to the pretty, round cheeks, which Neil Lowell was not slow to see.

The girl kissed her father and hurried from the room. The old man glanced from Lowell to the closed door, and back again, in much surprise.

"Neil," he said, after a long, thoughtful pause, "that is a subject upon which jests are not admissible."

"I understand you, sir, and I beg that you will feel no anxiety whatever upon that point. I am too young to fear."

"No, you are not. Your face is unusually handsome, and---- Remember, boy, I do not speak for my daughter's sake alone, but yours as well."

"I made up my mind, Mr. Pryor, some time ago, and I shall keep to my resolution, that I shall never marry. I beg that you will feel no concern for either me or--for her. Will you excuse me? We neither of us have much time in which to dress for dinner."

Andrew Pryor nodded a consent, and with infinite amusement in his heart, and amusement that was to be piteously short-lived, Neil Lowell sought his room to dress for that dinner that was to linger long in his memory.