“Richard,” she said with a little sharpness, “will you please listen to me for a moment?”

“Oh—­what?” He was like a diver coming up out of deep water.  “What did you say?” He laughed apologetically.  “Wasn’t I listening?  I beg your pardon.  What is it, Laura?”

“Why do you let Mr. Corliss take Cora away from you like that?” she asked gravely.

“He doesn’t,” the young man returned with a rueful shake of the head.  “Don’t you see?  It’s Cora that goes.”

“Why do you let her, then?”

He sighed.  “I don’t seem to be able to keep up with Cora, especially when she’s punishing me.  I couldn’t do something she asked me to, last night——­”

“Invest with Mr. Corliss?” asked Laura quickly.

“Yes.  It seemed to trouble her that I couldn’t.  She’s convinced it’s a good thing:  she thinks it would make a great fortune for us——­”

“`Us’?” repeated Laura gently.  “You mean for you and her?  When you’re——­”

“When we’re married.  Yes,” he said thoughtfully, “that’s the way she stated it.  She wanted me to put in all I have——­”

“Don’t do it!” said Laura decidedly.

He glanced at her with sharp inquiry.  “Do you mean you would distrust Mr. Corliss?”

“I wasn’t thinking of that:  I don’t know whether I’d trust him or not—­I think I wouldn’t; there’s something veiled about him, and I don’t believe he is an easy man to know.  What I meant was that I don’t believe it would really be a good thing for you with Cora.”

“It would please her, of course—­thinking I deferred so much to her judgment.”

“Don’t do it!” she said again, impulsively.

“I don’t see how I can,” he returned sorrowfully.

“It’s my work for all the years since I got out of college, and if I lost it I’d have to begin all over again.  It would mean postponing everything.  Cora isn’t a girl you can ask to share a little salary, and if it were a question of years, perhaps—­ perhaps Cora might not feel she could wait for me, you see.”

He made this explanation with plaintive and boyish sincerity, hesitatingly, and as if pleading a cause.  And Laura, after a long look at him, turned away, and in her eyes were actual tears of compassion for the incredible simpleton.

“I see,” she said.  “Perhaps she might not.”

“Of course,” he went on, “she’s fond of having nice things, and she thinks this is a great chance for us to be millionaires; and then, too, I think she may feel that it would please Mr. Corliss and help to save him from disappointment.  She seems to have taken a great fancy to him.”

Laura glanced at him, but did not speak.

“He is attractive,” continued Richard feebly.  “I think he has a great deal of what people call `magnetism’:  he’s the kind of man who somehow makes you want to do what he wants you to.  He seems a manly, straightforward sort, too—­so far as one can tell—­and when he came to me with his scheme I was strongly inclined to go into it.  But it is too big a gamble, and I can’t, though I was sorry to disappoint him myself.  He was perfectly cheerful about it and so pleasant it made me feel small.  I don’t wonder at all that Cora likes him so much.  Besides, he seems to understand her.”