You had better
go outside a minute, first, and clear your head."
He came very near to her, slightly swaying. "Fanny, you are a darling,
but you are hard; you are hard as the Commandments."
"That is not very kind, Peyton," she protested; "but I have some common
sense."
"Haven't you any uncommon sense?" he begged. "That's what I want. A
little just now might save everything."
"You must try to find out," she informed him; "I think I have been
successful with Lee; anyhow he ought to say so."
"I do," Lee Randon asserted quickly. "Fanny is wonderful. If I'm of no
use go to her."
"You don't know," Peyton muttered; "you can have no idea."
"What in the world was he talking about?" she asked Lee in the
automobile.
"Peyton is in love with Mina Raff," he admitted shortly, in a pressure
of conflicting emotions.
"Lee!" she exclaimed; "are you sure? Did he say so? That is simply
frightful."
"I imagine it's worse than you realize."
"Do you mean--"
"Nothing actual yet," he interrupted her impatiently; "perhaps nothing
you would bother about. But you'd be wrong. It's all in his thoughts--
some damned spoiled ideal, and as dangerous as possible."
"Poor Claire," she said.
"Of course, that's the thing to say," he agreed. "The man is always a
criminal in such situations."
"You are not trying to defend him?" she asked quietly.
"Maybe I am; I don't know.
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