"It is all right if your credit stays good."
"What do you mean?" sharply.
"Well, there's an insistence about their demands, in this month's bills."
"I'll pay them some day. But in the meantime, if I introduce my daughter to my friends, she's got to make a decent appearance."
Meriweather, with his hand on the head of the nearest hound, weighed the matter thoughtfully. It was the dickens of a time for a daughter to appear. His employer didn't half appreciate the gravity of the financial situation. A little more, and Round Hill would go with the rest. And Carew and the girl would be high and dry.
"You'll have to have somebody here, won't you?" he said at last, "if you are going to keep her with you. Some woman."
"Anne can come down. I telephoned her. She was shocked to flinders, of course. Everybody will be." An amused light flamed in his eyes. "I'm going to take her over with us tonight to the Hulburts'."
"What?" Meriweather's tone was incredulous.
"Why not? I want to see Ethel's face, and Sally's. I am going to call them up and ask them to put an extra plate on the dinner table for—my daughter."
He was, Meriweather could see, delighting in the sensation he would create. He would forget his money worries in this new interest.
Carew rose. "I'll telephone, and then I'll get at those affidavits. Are you going to ride?"
"I'll take a run with the dogs, and come back and type the stuff you gave me this morning."
