An Interview with the Editor

It was an ingenious, unselfish little scheme, and the manner in which
she had laid it bare to the person most concerned was delightfully
unsophisticated. He laughed at her tenderly, stroking her soft, pretty
hair with his big man's hand, the while he explained that he was a
business man pure and simple, and had made no excursions whatever into
literature; that the "writing" with which he had been occupied was
connected with proposed changes in his firm, and a report of a technical
character.

Margot flamed with indignation, but before the angry words had time to
form themselves on her lips, the thought occurred that after all the
help vouchsafed to her had been no pretence, but a very substantial
reality. Ron's foot had been placed on the first rung of the ladder,
while as for herself, what greater good could she have found to desire
than that which, through the Chieftain's machinations, had already come
to pass? She lifted her face to meet the anxious, adoring gaze bent
upon her, and cried hurriedly-"He--he meant it all the time! He meant it to happen!"

"Meant what, darling?"

"This!"

Margot waved her hand with a gesture sufficiently expressive, whereat
her lover laughed happily.

"Bless him! of course he did. He has been badgering me for years past
to look out for a wife; and when we met you he was clever enough to
realise that you were the one woman to fill the post. If he had said as
much to me at that stage of affairs, I should have packed up and made
off within the hour; if he had said it to you, you would have felt it
incumbent upon you to do the same. Instead, he let you go on in your
illusion, while he designed the means of throwing us into each other's
society. Good old Geoff! I'm not at all angry with him. Are you?"