"
"No, thank you," refused Katherine. "I weigh more than you, and I
cannot risk my neck through the collapse of that bit of gossamer. I
must take care of myself for his sake."
"Then it is the life insurance man whose interests you are consulting?
Have you taken out a policy with him?"
"Dear me, you are nearly as bad as father, but not quite so funny. You
are referring to Mr. Henderson, I presume. A most delightful companion
for a dance, but, my dear Dorothy, life is not all glided out to the
measures of a Strauss waltz."
"True; quite undisputable, Kate, and them sentiments do you credit.
Who is the man?"
"The human soul," continued Katherine seriously, "aspires to higher
things than the society columns of the New York Sunday papers, and the
frivolous chatter of an overheated ball-room."
"Again you score, Kate, and are rising higher and higher in my
estimation. I see it all now. Those solemn utterances of yours point
directly toward Hugh Miller's 'Old Red Sandstone' and works of that
sort, and now I remember your singing 'When Johnny comes marching
home.' I therefore take it that Jack Lamont has arrived."
"He has not."
"Then he has written to you?"
"He has not."
"Oh, well, I give it up. Tell me the tragedy your own way."
For answer Katherine withdrew her hands from behind her, and offered
to her friend a sheet of paper she had been holding. Dorothy saw
blazoned on the top of it a coat-of-arms, and underneath it, written
in words of the most formal nature, was the information that Prince
Ivan Lermontoff presented his warmest regards to Captain Kempt,
U.
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