Hampstead pressed his hand to his brow. Under his tawny thatch ideas were in a whirl.
"What shall I do?" he asked rather helplessly.
"Stay over," commanded Mitchell unhesitatingly. "Ring up and tell him you'll be there."
"But there's no use, anyway," replied John suddenly, getting back to the main point. "My mind's made up."
"No man's mind is made up when he's going to take dinner on the proposition with William N. Scofield," answered Mitchell oracularly.
"And you?" asked Hampstead, suddenly aware how good a man at heart was Robert Mitchell, and quite unaware that he had seized that gentleman's pudgy right hand and was wringing it in a manner most embarrassing to Mitchell himself. "You--"
But the telephone was tingling impatiently.
"Mr. Scofield wants to know," began a voice.
"Yes, yes, I'll be happy to," interrupted John, not knowing just what tone or form one should take in expressing the necessary amenities to the secretary of a great man.
"Very well. His car will call for you at six-thirty," responded the voice.
But before John could pick up the thread of his unfinished sentence to Mr. Mitchell, a knock sounded at the door, at first soft and cushioned, as if from a gloved hand, then louder and more determined, and repeated with quick impatience.
The knob turned, and the door swung wide, leaving the panel of white to frame the picture of a woman. She was young, of medium height and appealing roundness, clad from head to foot in a traveling dress of dark green, with a small hat of a shade to match, the chief adornment of which was a red hawk's feather slanting backward at a jaunty angle. A veil enveloped both hat brim and face but was not thick enough to dim the sparkle of bright eyes or the pink flush of dimpled cheeks, much less to conceal two rows of gleaming teeth from between which, after a moment's pause for sensation, burst a ringing cadence of laughter.
"The very first guess!" declared that young lady, advancing and yielding the doorframe to another figure which filled it so much more completely as to sufficiently explain a more deliberate arrival.
"Mollie!" ejaculated Mitchell, who by this time had turned toward the door. "What in thunder?"
But the General Freight Agent's lines of communication were just then temporarily disconnected by an assault upon his features conducted by Miss Bessie in person. During this interval, Mrs. Mitchell stood placidly surveying the room, and as she took in its air of preparation for immediate departure, a tantalizing smile spread itself on her expansive features.