"
"And no doubt perfectly able to afford it," remarked Edna, serenely.
He missed the point, and saw a compliment instead.
"Well, you're not so far out of the way there, if I do say it myself," he
replied, with a stony smile. "I've had my share of good luck. Since the
tide turned in my affairs, some years ago, I've been a steady winner.
Somehow or other, nothing seems able to fail that I go into. It's really
been monotonous. The only money I've lost was some twenty thousand
dollars that a trusted agent absconded with."
"You're mistaken," Florence broke in, with a note of indignation that
made Bagley stare. "He did not abscond. He has disappeared, and your
money may be gone for the present. But there was no crime on his part."
"Why, do you know anything about it?" asked Bagley, in a voice subdued by
sheer wonder.
"I know that Murray Davenport disappeared, and what the newspapers said
about your money; that is all."
"Then how, if I may ask, do you know there wasn't any crime intended? I
inquire merely for information." Bagley was, indeed, as meek as he could
be in his manner of inquiry.
"I _know_ Murray Davenport," was her reply.
"You knew him well?"
"Very well."
"You--took a great interest in him?"
"Very great."
"Indeed!" said Bagley, in pure surprise, and gazing at her as if she
were a puzzle.
"You said you had a message for my father," replied Florence, coldly.
Bagley rose slowly. "Oh, yes,"--he spoke very dryly and looked very
blank,--"please tell him if the storm passes, and the snow lies, I wish
you and he would go sleighing to-morrow.
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