You look terrible! Get something plain and decent on and we'll go out and take a walk in the park somewhere. Then I can tell you what a father you had!"

Corinne had never been told before that she looked terrible. She caught her breath and stifled a small cry of protest. For an instant anger struggled with her desire to hear what he had to say, and she got up slowly, rubbing the tears away from her eyes. She walked over to a grotesque mirror built in angles on the wall and studied herself for an instant. Then she turned back to Dana with a half-shamed smile.

"It is pretty terrible, isn't it?" she admitted, and turning she caught up a pack of cigarettes from the table near the couch where she had been sitting, and held it out toward him.

"Have one," she said with a show of boldness. "I'll be all right when I get a smoke!"

Dana shook his head.

"No, thank you, I don't smoke!"

She gave him another astonished stare.

"Not smoke?" Then she turned swiftly and left the room.

He wondered as he stood tensely by the window staring out unseeingly, whether she meant to come back at all. She hadn't said she would. How long should he stay and wait for her? Would his mother return perhaps and order him away? Perhaps he should go at once and save her the trouble.

But, no, he could not do that. He had offered to take his sister out. He must wait and see if she would come.

He would have been surprised if he could have known how Corinne was hurrying. She, who was unaccustomed to doing the simplest things for herself, did not ring for her maid, but went at her own reconstruction with locked door. Her maid would have been surprised, too, if she could have seen how swiftly and skillfully she went about it, removing the makeup and finishing with a good washing in hot water and soap. She was clean at least, and looked strange indeed to her own eyes as she looked in the mirror. Maybe that ridiculous new brother would discover how silly she looked now, without makeup!

She chose a little street suit, the plainest she had, bright deep blue with a hat to match and a scarf of white. To her own eyes she had a nunlike severity.

Then with another dissatisfied look at herself in the mirror she went slowly back to the living room.

Chapter 3

Bruce Carbury was on his way to the interview that meant much to his future. He had expected to be nervous, and to spend the last few minutes in planning just what he would say when he arrived in the presence of the august personage who had consented to consider him for a job in the well-known organization of which he was the head. But as he made his way to the place of meeting he found his thoughts going in an entirely different direction. He could not keep his mind from straying toward Dana Barron's troubles. Poor Dana! He was such a wonderful fellow, and to think he had such ghastly sorrow in his life!

True he had had a prince of a father, but his life had been blighted, too! It seemed as if it would have been kinder in the father not to have put such a burden upon the son as to require him to go and see a mother like that! And a sister like that! What a shame!

Of course, there might be something about the whole thing he did not understand, but from what Dana had told him, he could not see that there was anything required of Dana toward a mother who had deserted him when he was a mere baby.

And a sister, too! How complicated the whole thing was. It did seem as if it would be much better for Dana just to stay as far away from them both as he could, and forget them. What good could possibly come of any contact, however brief? Could it be that the father had planned this meeting with his mother so that he himself would be justified in Dana's eyes?

Well, it was all a mystery. But he would try to get to the bottom of it all tonight. He wasn't sure that Dana meant to go to them today. He hadn't said so definitely. Very likely he would only scout around, see what kind of a place they lived in and get his bearings first. And then tonight, if he could get Dana to tell him more about it, he certainly would advise him to stay away from them altogether. Think what a drag they might be to him if they were the selfish type, and they must be, of course. Dana with a worldly sister! She would be a continual disgrace to him perhaps! It would be so much better for Dana to keep away from them.

Of course, it might be difficult to persuade Dana, for he had such an overpowering admiration for his dead father, and such devotion to his slightest wish. But he would try to suggest to him that likely his father now, from his heavenly standpoint, would not want Dana burdened that way.