But he had been hearing so many things about Carmelita lately. "You were right then, Drake, when you said there was more to the case than your nephew was telling. Perhaps if I had been in town the first time you called, I could, as you suggested, have talked with her and avoided all this painful trouble. But, on the other hand, perhaps the most dramatic way was the best. The appeal of a beautiful woman insulted and in distress, you know—it is very powerful in any country."
They drove into the grounds of Carmelita's house in an entirely different mood from the anxious one in which they had been breaking the law in the effort to reach the courthouse before the trial was over. They had failed in their effort—and miraculously succeeded. The butler at the door explained that Mr. and Mrs. Drake were seeing no one.
"If you will tell Mr. Drake that his uncle, Sanford Drake, is calling, perhaps he will change his mind."
Mr. Drake did change his mind. Moreover, he came out personally to the piazza to greet his uncle and have his hand nearly shaken out of its socket.
"I suspected you all the time—you poor, chivalric, heroic fool," Sanford Drake was joyously chiding him. The other man was looking at Dudley with appraising curiosity,
