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Key Performance
Indicators
 Key Performance
Indicators
Developing, Implementing,
and Using Winning KPIs
Second Edition

DAVID PARMENTER

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright

C 2010 by David Parmenter. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108
of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written
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Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4470, or on the web at
www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be
addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River
Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at
www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have

used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or
warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this
book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or
fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales
representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained
herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a
professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable
for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited
to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

For general information on our other products and services or for technical
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Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content
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information about Wiley products, visit our web site at www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Parmenter, David.
Key performance indicators : developing, implementing, and using winning
KPIs / David Parmenter.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-470-54515-7 (cloth)
1. Performance technology. 2. Performance standards. 3. Organizational
effectiveness. I. Title.
HF5549.5.P37P37 2010
658.4 013–dc22
2009035911

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
 Contents

Preface ix
Acknowledgments xix

CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1

Key Result Indicators 2

Performance and Result Indicators 3
Key Performance Indicators 4
Management Models that Have a Profound
Impact on KPIs 16
Definitions 24
Notes 27

CHAPTER 2 Foundation Stones for Implementing Key

Performance Indicators 29

Four Foundation Stones Guiding the

Development and Use of KPIs 29
Defining Vision, Mission, and Strategy 37
Note 39

CHAPTER 3 Developing and Using KPIs: A 12-Step Model 41

Step 1: Senior Management Team Commitment 41

Step 2: Establishing a Winning KPI
Project Team 51
Step 3: Establishing a “Just Do It” Culture
and Process 55

v
 Contents

Step 4: Setting Up a Holistic KPI

Development Strategy 62
Step 5: Marketing the KPI System to
All Employees 67
Step 6: Identifying Organization-Wide
Critical Success Factors 74
Step 7: Recording Performance Measures
in a Database 74
Step 8: Selecting Team-Level Performance
Measures 77
Step 9: Selecting Organizational
Winning KPIs 86
Step 10: Developing the Reporting
Framework at All Levels 88
Step 11: Facilitating the Use of
Winning KPIs 96
Step 12: Refining KPIs to Maintain Their
Relevance 101
Notes 105

CHAPTER 4 KPI Team Resource Kit 107

Using This Resource Kit 107

Step 1 Worksheet: Senior Management
Team Commitment 108
Step 2 Worksheet: Establishing a Winning
KPI Team 115
Step 3 Worksheet: Establish a “Just Do It”
Culture and Process for This Project 119
Step 4 Worksheet: Setting Up a Holistic
KPI Development Strategy 122
Step 5 Worksheet: Marketing the KPI
System to All Employees 125

vi
Contents

Step 6 Worksheet: Identifying

Organization-wide CSFs 132
Step 7 Worksheet: Comprehensive Recording
of Measures within the Database 132
Step 8 Worksheet: Selecting Team
Performance Measures 133
Step 9 Worksheet: Selecting
Organization-wide Winning KPIs 141
Step 10 Worksheet: Developing Display,
Reporting, and Review Frameworks
at All Levels 143
Step 11 Worksheet: Facilitating the Use
of KPIs 146
Step 12 Worksheet: Refining KPIs to
Maintain Their Relevance 146

CHAPTER 5 Templates for Reporting Performance

Measures 155

Reporting Key Result Indicators in a

Dashboard to the Board 155
Reporting Performance Measures
to Management 163
Reporting Performance Measures to Staff 169
Graph Format Examples 172
Notes 184

CHAPTER 6 Facilitator’s Resource Kit 185

Remember the Fundamentals 185

KPI Typical Questions and Answers 187

CHAPTER 7 Critical Success Factors Kit 199

Benefits of Understanding Your

Organization’s CSFs 200

vii
 Contents

Relevant Success Factors 204

Step 6: Identifying Organization-wide Critical
Success Factors 205
Finding the CSFs through a Relationship
Mapping Process 212
How I Organize the Critical Success Factor
Workshop 213
Note 222
Appendix 7A: Where to Look for Your
Success Factors 222
Appendix 7B: Letter Invite from the CEO 224
Appendix 7C: Success Factors Workshop
Planning Checklist 225
Appendix 7D: Workshop Instructions 227
Appendix 7E: Success Factor Matrix 233

CHAPTER 8 Brainstorming Performance Measures 241

CHAPTER 9 Implementation Variations for

Small-to-Medium Enterprises and
Not-for-Profit Organizations 243

Small-to-Medium Enterprises 243

Not-for-Profit Organizations 246

CHAPTER 10 Implementation Lessons 253

How to Implement Winning KPIs

in 16 Weeks 253
Notes 265

Epilogue: Electronic Media Available to You 267

Appendix: Performance Measures Database 269

Index 295

viii
 Preface

P erformance measurement is failing organizations all around

the world, whether they are multinationals, government de-
partments, or small local charities. The measures that have been
adopted were dreamed up one day without any linkage to the
critical success factors of the organizations. These measures are
frequently monthly or quarterly. Management reviews them and
says, “That was a good quarter” or “That was a bad month.”
Performance measures should help your organization align
daily activities to strategic objectives. This book has been written
to assist you in developing, implementing, and using winning
KPIs—those performance measures that will make a profound
difference. This book is also aimed at providing the missing
link between the balanced scorecard work of Robert Kaplan and
David Norton and the reality of implementing performance mea-
surement in an organization. The implementation difficulties
were first grasped by a key performance indicator (KPI) manual
developed by Australian Government Department “AusIndus-
tries” as part of a portfolio of resources for organizations pur-
suing international best practices. This book has adopted many
of the approaches of the KPI manual, which was first published
in 1996, and has incorporated more implementation tools, the
balanced scorecard philosophy, the author’s work on winning
KPIs, and many checklists to assist with implementation.

ix
 Preface

Embarking on a KPI/Balanced Scorecard Project

The goal of this book is to help minimize the risks that working
on a KPI/balanced scorecard project encompasses. It is designed
for the project team, senior management, external project facil-
itators, and team coordinators whose role it is to steer such
a project to success. The roles they play could leave a great
legacy in the organization for years to come or could amount
to nothing by joining the many performance measurement ini-
tiatives that have failed. It is my wish that the material in this
book, along with the workshops I deliver around the world,
will increase the likelihood of success.
In order for both you and your project to succeed, I suggest
that you:

Read Chapters 1 and 2 carefully, a couple of times.

Visit my Web site, www.davidparmenter.com, for other use-
ful information.

Scan the material in subsequent chapters so you know what
is there.

Begin Step 1 in Chapter 3 by setting up the focus group
one-day workshop.

Listen to my webcasts on www.bettermanagement.com;
webcast support is available for most chapters of this book.

Seek an outside facilitator who will help guide/mentor you
in the early weeks of the project.

Begin the KPI project team-building exercises, and under-
take any training to plug those identified skill gaps in the
KPI project team.

Letter to the Chief Executive Officer

Due to the workload of chief executive officers (CEOs), few will
have the time to read much of this book. I have thus written a

x
Preface

letter to the CEO of your organization to help explain his or her

involvement. It is important that the CEO knows:

The content of Chapters 1 and 2

The seven characteristics of KPIs

The difference between success factors and critical success
factors

The extent of his or her involvement, and the risks the
project faces if the CEO does not actively support the KPI
team

The content of my “Introduction to Winning KPIs” and
“Implementing Critical Success Factors” webcasts on www.
bettermanagement.com

Using Chapter 1: Introduction

For years, organizations that have had what they thought were
KPIs have not had the focus, adaptability, innovation, and prof-
itability that they were seeking. KPIs themselves were misla-
beled and misused. Examine a company with over 20 KPIs and
you will find a lack of focus, lack of alignment, and under-
achievement. Some organizations try to manage with over 40
KPIs, many of which are not actually KPIs. This chapter ex-
plains a new way of breaking performance measures into key
result indicators (KRIs), result indicators (RIs), performance in-
dicators (PIs), and key performance indicators (KPIs). It also
explains a significant shift in the way KPIs are used to ensure
they do not create dysfunctional behavior.

Using Chapter 2: Foundation Stones for Implementing

Key Performance Indicators
Effective organizational change relies heavily on creating
appropriate people practices as the centerpiece of a new

xi
 David Parmenter
Writer, Speaker, Facilitator
Helping organizations measure, report, and
improve performance
PO Box 10686, Wellington, New Zealand (+ 64 4) 499 0007
parmenter@waymark.co.nz www.davidparmenter.com
January 31, 2010
Dear CEO,
Invitation to put winning KPIs in your organization
I would like to introduce you to a process that will have a pro-
found impact on your organization. It will link you to the key activities
in the organization that have the most impact on the bottom line. If im-
plemented successfully, it will have a profound impact, enabling you to
leave a major legacy.
I would like to wager that you have not carried out an exercise to
distinguish those critical success factors (CSFs) from the many success
factors you and your senior management team talk about on a regular
basis. I would also point out that much of the reporting you receive,
whether it is financial or on performance measures, does not aid your
daily decision-making process. I know this because much of the informa-
tion you receive is monthly data received well after the horse has bolted.
Whereas this book is principally an implementation guide and thus is
suitable for advisors, facilitators, and implementation staff, I recommend
that you read these sections:

Chapter 1, which explains the background to this breakthrough

Chapter 2, which emphasizes the four foundation stones you need
to put in place and ensure they are not compromised at any time

Chapter 7, on finding your critical success factors
Armed with this information, I trust that you will support the winning
KPI project with commitment and enthusiasm.
By the time you read it, this work will have received international
acceptance. The first edition of this book is a best seller in performance
measurement.
I ask that you spare 45 minutes of your time and listen to my we-
bcast “An Introduction to Winning KPIs” on www.bettermanagement.
com.
I am hopeful that this book, with the support material available on
my Web site, www.davidparmenter.com, will help you and your organi-
zation achieve a significant performance improvement. I look forward to
hearing about your progress.
Kind regards,
David Parmenter
parmenter@waymark.co.nz

xii
Preface

workplace culture. In this context, the introduction of KPIs must

be achieved in a way that supports and extends the idea of a co-
operative partnership in the workplace—a partnership among
employees, management, suppliers, customers, and the commu-
nities in which the organization operates. This chapter advances
four general principles, called the four foundation stones:

1. Partnership with the staff, unions, key suppliers, and key

customers
2. Transfer of power to the front line
3. Measuring and Reporting only what happens
4. Linkage of performance measures to strategy through the
CSFs

Using Chapter 3: Developing and Using KPIs: A 12-Step Model

When you are ready to introduce performance measures (in-
cluding result indicators, performance indicators, and KPIs) into
your organization, we anticipate that you will want to broadly
follow the 12-step approach outlined in this chapter. This chap-
ter analyzes each step in detail, its purpose, the key tasks to
be carried out, implementation guidelines, and a checklist to
ensure that you undertake the key steps.

Using Chapter 4: KPI Team Resource Kit

This chapter provides the KPI team with useful tools for gath-
ering information. For many of the steps, a questionnaire has
been included and, in some cases, a worksheet that needs to
be completed by the project team or by the teams developing
their performance measures. For all key workshop sessions, a
program has been developed based on successful ones run by
the author. Electronic templates of all checklists can be acquired
from www.davidparmenter.com (for a small fee).

xiii
 Preface

Using Chapter 5: Templates for Reporting

Performance Measures
This chapter illustrates how to present KRIs, RIs, PIs, and KPIs.

Using Chapter 6: Facilitator’s Resource Kit

The involvement of a skilled KPI facilitator sourced from out-
side the company assists the process of developing and using
performance measures (including KRIs, RIs, PIs, and KPIs). The
facilitator’s key roles are to help educate the senior management
team and then set up and mentor the project team. Chapter 3
suggests that certain key activities within the 12 steps should be
performed by this external facilitator.

Using Chapter 7: Critical Success Factors Kit

It is the critical success factors (CSFs), and the performance mea-
sures within them, that link daily activities to the organization’s
strategies. This, I believe, is the El Dorado of management.
In these trying times, knowing your CSFs maybe the decid-
ing factor in survival. If your organization has not completed a
thorough exercise to know its CSFs, performance management
cannot possibly function. Performance measurement, monitor-
ing, and reporting will be a random process creating an army of
measurers producing numerous numbing reports, full of mea-
sures that monitor progress in a direction very remote from the
organization’s strategy.
Although most organizations know their success factors, few
organizations have:

Worded their success factors appropriately

Segregated out success factors from their strategic objectives

xiv
Preface

Sifted through the success factors to find their critical ones—

their critical success factors

Communicated the critical success factors to staff

The process outlined in this chapter will crystallize and com-

municate the organization’s CSFs. The beauty of the method is
that it is a simple methodical process that can be run by in-house
staff.
CSF selection is a very subjective exercise. The effectiveness
and usefulness of the CSFs chosen is highly dependent on the
analytical skill of those involved. Active leadership by senior
management in this process is thus mandatory.

Using Chapter 8: Brainstorming Performance Measures

Once the CSFs have been established, it is important to find
the performance measures. This exercise is best done as part
of a brainstorming exercise. Please listen to “Sorting the Wheat
from the Chaff” webcast on www.bettermanagement.com when
reading this chapter.

Using Chapter 9: Implementation Variations for

Small-to-Medium Enterprises and Not-for-Profit Organizations
When I first wrote about the 12-step process, I set out an imple-
mentation Gantt chart showing 12 steps. Attendees from small-
to-medium enterprises often request advice on a simpler pro-
cess. This chapter presents my new thinking, which I use when
I help smaller organizations.
I also point out useful tips for not-for-profit organizations,
who may believe that performance measurement has to be
different.

xv
 Preface

Using Chapter 10: Implementation Lessons

Kaplan and Norton, in their groundbreaking book, The Bal-
anced Scorecard—Translating Strategy into Action, indicated
that 16 weeks is enough time to establish a working balanced
scorecard with KPIs. However, organizations of all sizes and
complexity stumble with this process, and 16 weeks easily turns
into 16 months. The key to success is to learn the key imple-
mentation lessons covered in this chapter.

Using the Epilogue: Electronic Media Available to You

This epilogue presents the electronic media available, some for
free and some with a fee.

Using the Appendix: Performance Measures Database

The appendix provides a list of performance measures (includ-
ing KRIs, RIs, PIs, and KPIs), some of which will be relevant for
your organization. These are organized according to balanced
scorecard perspectives and are updated constantly. An elec-
tronic version of the updated database can be acquired from
www.davidparmenter.com (for a fee).

Who Should Read What

This book is a resource for anyone in the organization involved
with the development and use of KPIs. It is desirable that all
KPI project team members, the external project facilitator, team
coordinators, and local facilitators (if required) have their own
manual to ensure all follow the same plan. Team members are
expected to take the manual with them when meeting staff and
management, as they will be able to clarify issues by using
examples from the manual. (Please note that this book is copy-
righted, so it is a breach of the copyright to photocopy sections
for distribution.)

xvi
Preface

KPI
Project
CEO Team,
& External Team Co-
Overview Board SMT Facilitator ordinators

Chapter 1 Introduction.    
Chapter 2 The foundation stones   
for implementing
KPIs.
Chapter 3 Developing and using  
KPIs: A 12-step
model.
Chapter 4 KPI team resource kit. 
Chapter 5 Templates for  
reporting
performance
measures.
Chapter 6 Facilitator’s 
resource kit.
Chapter 7 Critical Success  
Factors Kit.
Chapter 8 Brainstorming 
Performance
Measures.
Chapter 9 Implementation  
Variations for
Small-to-Medium
Enterprises and
Not-for-Profit
Organizations.
Chapter 10 Implementation  
Lessons.
Appendix List of performance  
measures (including
KRIs, RIs, PIs, and
KPIs) to assist with
the short-listing of
likely performance
measures.

xvii
 Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge the commitment and dedica-

tion of Waymark Solutions staff members over the years this
project has taken (Sean, Dean, Jacqueline, Roydon, and Matt);
my partner, Jennifer Gilchrist, who read through the drafts; and
my children, Alexandra and Claudine, who, like Jennifer, were
so patient during many late nights in the office. I am also grate-
ful for all those who have attended my KPI workshops and
shared their ideas on winning KPIs.
I am grateful to Harry Mills, Matt Clayton, and Jeremy Hope
for their sage advice over the years and to Sheck Cho for getting
this book published in the first place.
A special thanks goes to my parents, who through their
unique style of parenting and continuous support have given
me the confidence and the platform to undertake the mission I
am now on.

xix
 CHAPTER 1
Introduction

M any companies are working with the wrong measures,

many of which are incorrectly termed key performance in-
dicators (KPIs). Very few organizations really monitor their true
KPIs. The reason is that very few organizations, business lead-
ers, writers, accountants, and consultants have explored what a
KPI actually is. There are four types of performance measures
(see Exhibit 1.1):

1. Key result indicators (KRIs) tell you how you have done in
a perspective or critical success factor.
2. Result indicators (RIs) tell you what you have done.
3. Performance indicators (PIs) tell you what to do.
4. KPIs tell you what to do to increase performance dramati-
cally.

Many performance measures used by organizations are thus an

inappropriate mix of these four types.
An onion analogy can be used to describe the relationship
of these four measures. The outside skin describes the overall
condition of the onion, the amount of sun, water, and nutrients
it has received; and how it has been handled from harvest to
the supermarket shelf. The outside skin is a key result indicator.
However, as we peel the layers off the onion, we find more
information. The layers represent the various performance and

1
 Key Performance Indicators

KRIs

Peel the skin to find the PIs

RIs and
PIs
Peel to the core to find the KPIs

KPIs

EXHIBIT 1.1 Four Types of Performance Measures

result indicators, and the core represents the key performance

indicator.

Key Result Indicators

What are KRIs? KRIs are measures that often have been mistaken
for KPIs. They include:

Customer satisfaction

Net profit before tax

Profitability of customers

Employee satisfaction

Return on capital employed

The common characteristic of these measures is that they are

the result of many actions. They give a clear picture of whether
you are traveling in the right direction. They do not, however,
tell you what you need to do to improve these results. Thus,
KRIs provide information that is ideal for the board (i.e., those
people who are not involved in day-to-day management).
KRIs typically cover a longer period of time than KPIs;
they are reviewed on monthly/quarterly cycles, not on a daily/

2
Introduction

weekly basis as KPIs are. Separating KRIs from other measures

has a profound impact on reporting, resulting in a separation
of performance measures into those impacting governance and
those impacting management. That is, an organization should
have a governance report (ideally in a dashboard format), con-
sisting of up to 10 measures providing high-level KRIs for
the board, and a balanced scorecard (BSC) comprising up to
20 measures (a mix of KPIs, RIs, and PIs) for management.
In between KRIs and the true KPIs are numerous perfor-
mance and result indicators. These complement the KPIs and
are shown with them on the scorecard for the organization and
the scorecard for each division, department, and team.

Performance and Result Indicators

The 80 or so performance measures that lie between the KRIs
and the KPIs are the performance and result indicators (PIs and
RIs). The performance indicators, while important, are not key
to the business. The PIs help teams to align themselves with their
organization’s strategy. PIs are nonfinancial and complement
the KPIs; they are shown with KPIs on the scorecard for each
organization, division, department, and team.
Performance indicators that lie beneath KRIs could include:

Percentage increase in sales with top 10% of customers

Number of employees’ suggestions implemented in last
30 days

Customer complaints from key customers

Sales calls organized for the next week, two weeks

Late deliveries to key customers

The RIs summarize activity, and all financial performance

measures are RIs (e.g., daily or weekly sales analysis is a very
useful summary, but it is a result of the efforts of many teams).

3
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
 “Miss Frink, it’s all absurd,” he said. “I don’t need a nurse any
more than a toad needs a tail. I can take care of myself perfectly. I
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—”
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“May I read this letter of introduction?”
 “It is yours,” he answered.
Miss Frink read it attentively. “John Ogden,” she said aloud as she
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The cigarette was lighted, Miss Frink called the nurse, and fled to
the study where her secretary was busily sorting papers at his desk.
He was a smooth-shaven man in his late thirties, immaculate in
appearance, his retreating hair giving him a very high forehead, and
his small mouth with its full lips seeming an appropriate gateway for
his voice and speech which were unfortunately effeminate.
“Grim,” said Miss Frink upon her sudden entrance, “Mr. Stanwood
has been put in the White Room and the nurse is with him—Hello,
Adèle, I didn’t see you.”
 Mrs. Lumbard rose from the floor where she had been sitting
Turkish fashion near the book-shelves.
“I was looking for that ‘Life of Mozart,’ Aunt Susanna. I thought
the ‘Lives of the Musicians’ were on this lowest shelf.”
“No, upper. Take the ladder. Grim, I want you to go up to Mr.
Stanwood’s room and get his suit of clothes, and pack them in a box
and send them to his tailor with an order to duplicate the suit at
once. Explain that he has been in an accident, and that the clothes
and bill are to be sent to me. Here’s his trunk check. Get that, too.
Adèle, why are you here? You know I wanted you to go back to the
festivities.”
“I did, Aunt Susanna,” said the young woman with conscious
rectitude. “I listened to the speeches and applauded, and answered
a thousand questions about you. Why, you’re perfectly wonderful,
Aunt Susanna. Any other woman would be lying in bed in a
darkened room with a bandage around her head.”
“One bandage in the family is sufficient,” said Miss Frink, with a
little excited laugh. “That poor boy upstairs looks as if he had been
through the wars. And he did”—she turned acutely toward her
secretary—“he did go through the war.”
Grimshaw lifted his high forehead in an injured manner. “If that is
aimed at me, Miss Frink, I will remind you once again of my helpless
mother and sister.”
“Oh, yes, yes,” said Miss Frink impatiently, “I know. Scuttle along,
Grim, and do the errand. I believe I’ll jump into your car and just
show myself at the supper at the City Hall.”
“Oh, you’re wonderful, Aunt Susanna!” exclaimed Mrs. Lumbard,
clasping her pretty hands. “If you want me to, I’ll—”
“I don’t. I know how it would bore you. I’ll see that coachman
first. I must get rid of him. I knew the checks weren’t right.”
She swept out of the room as suddenly as she had entered it, and
the two left standing there looked at each other, their expressions
changing from the solicitude they had worn to gravity.
“If the gods hadn’t intervened,” said Adèle softly, “to-night we
should have been—”
“Sh!” warned the secretary.
“Of course, there would be some charities,” she went on, her
brown eyes shining, “but you and I, you and I—”
“Hush!” warned the secretary again. “We can’t be thankful enough
that dear Miss Frink’s life was saved.”
Mrs. Lumbard laughed low. “You’ve said it, Leonard. I don’t think
we can.”
“Adèle!”
“Yes, I know.” She still laughed softly.
 CHAPTER IV
A BOBBED HEAD

As Leonard Grimshaw’s hair gradually deserted him, he brushed it

up in a more and more aggressive tuft; and as he entered the White
Room now he reminded Hugh of a cockatoo, with his crest and his
slender, sharp nose and shell-rimmed spectacles.
“Excuse the intrusion,” he said in his most dignified and ladylike
manner, and, as he gazed at the one-eyed warrior, his nostrils
dilated. Cigarette smoke was curling above the immaculateness of
the bed. “I come at Miss Frink’s behest to get your suit of clothes,”
he added coldly.
Hugh removed his cigarette. “What you going to do with it?” he
asked in a rather hollow voice. “Any needy scarecrows in
Farrandale?”
The secretary did not like the stranger’s nonchalant manner and
he declined to smile.
“I am to send it to your tailor to be duplicated. Miss Frink
proposes to pay for it.”
“She’ll have to if anybody does,” remarked Hugh feebly. “I’m
broke. Awfully good of you, Mr.—Mr.—”
“Grimshaw. I am Miss Frink’s private secretary and man of affairs.”
“Pompous little birdie,” thought Hugh, and he regarded his visitor
closely with his one eye, remembering John Ogden’s reference to the
pussy-footing secretary who was to be Miss Frink’s heir.
The nurse brought the suit to the bedside for Hugh to empty the
pockets. There was the photograph in its worn leather case, a card,
a handkerchief, some keys, a knife, but the suit being new had not
accumulated the usual papers and old letters. There was a spotless
pocketbook or billfold, and Hugh smiled ruefully at sight of it. He
knew its contents.
“All right,” he said, and left the lot in the nurse’s hands.
The secretary continued to stare disapprovingly at the smoke-
wreathed bed. As he accepted the dilapidated suit from the nurse,
he spoke again:
“I feel I should tell you, Mr. Stanwood, that tobacco is very
offensive to Miss Frink, especially in the form of cigarettes. Of
course, you have put us under great obligation” (Hugh noted the
“us”), “but I must warn you that we cannot allow the atmosphere of
the house to be vitiated and made disagreeable for Miss Frink.”
Hugh smiled faintly toward the speaker. “Fine of you to look out
for her,” he said. “Might shut the transom, nurse.”
The secretary’s full lips drew together and he glared at this self-
possession. Insolence, he called it. Of course, the man was injured,
but, in consideration of such hospitality as was being shown him, he
might at least act promptly upon such information.
Leonard returned to Mrs. Lumbard flushed, and with the little
crack in his voice that came with excitement.
“Lying there, smoking like a young nabob,” he reported. “I told
him Miss Frink’s horror of tobacco, and he merely asked the nurse to
close the transom. Such nerve!”
“Yes,” returned Adèle, interested, “we surely knew already that he
had nerve: and isn’t he a beauty?”
“Oh, certainly,” returned the other, throwing down the clothes on a
table with a vigor that suggested a wish that the owner was
occupying them. “Head all bandaged but one eye, arm bundled up, a
general wreck.”
“Let him smoke, then, poor thing, while Aunt Susanna is off
showing Farrandale what she’s made of. It will be his last for one
while.”
It was, indeed, Hugh’s last indulgence because a high fever took
possession of the young adventurer that night, and for a few days
Miss Frink’s physician was a busy man. She paid scant attention to
her other interests until the boy was sane again; and, although she
kept to the usual hours in her study, the nurse was instructed to
report to her at short intervals.
“It does seem, Miss Frink, as if we ought to send for his Aunt
Sukey,” said this attractive young woman on one occasion. “He calls
for her incessantly.”
Miss Frink drew her features together in the sudden grimace
which sent her eyeglasses off her nose.
“How are we going to do that? You looked through that little trunk
of his, I suppose, as I told you?”
“Yes. There wasn’t a scrap of paper in there, and this is all that
was in his pockets.”
The nurse produced the photograph case and a business card.
Miss Frink examined them. “Yes, there’s John Ogden’s card. I
could send for him, but I don’t care to have him see just what I
managed to do to his protégé in a few hours. Unless the boy’s in
danger, I won’t send, as yet.” Miss Frink looked long at the
photograph.
“Might be his sister,” she said. “There’s a resemblance. I hope it
isn’t a best girl. He’s too young to be hampered.”
Leonard Grimshaw looked over her shoulder at the picture. His
employer glanced at him with a humorous twist of her thin lips.
“You’ve kept free, eh, Grim?”
“I had interests which came first,” responded the secretary, with
the reproving tone which he reserved for implications that he had
time for any thought separate from Miss Frink’s affairs.
 That lady returned the old morocco case and the card to the
nurse.
“Keep careful watch,” she said, “and ask Dr. Morton to report to
me at his next visit. I wish to send for Mr. Ogden if there is occasion
for anxiety.”
The nurse left the room, and the secretary turned adoring eyes
upon his employer.
“If you ever thought of yourself, Miss Frink, you would see Dr.
Morton on your own account. After the shock you have endured, and
the heroism with which you returned to the excitement of the
banquet, it stands to reason that your nerves should have a tonic.”
“Fiddlesticks, Grim. I’m all right. All the tonic I need is to know
that I haven’t killed that boy upstairs.”
“Don’t worry about him,” said the secretary, looking severely
through his dark-rimmed spectacles. “Other husky men have
survived a broken arm and a bumped head, and I dare say he will. I
feel that I ought to warn you that he is a person of no delicacy.”
Miss Frink regarded the speaker with narrowed eyes.
“I rather suspected that,” she said slowly, “by the way he grabbed
my horses’ heads.”
The secretary flushed, but continued indomitably: “Physical
bravery is often allied with a thick-skinned mentality. I think for your
own protection you should know what I found when I went to the
White Room to get his suit.” He paused dramatically.
Miss Frink winked off her glasses again and returned the
spectacled gaze with deep interest. “He was kissing the nurse,
perhaps,” she said. “She is a sweet thing.”
“Miss Frink!” The exclamation was scandalized as her secretary
regarded his lady of the old school with real amazement. “No. He
was not kissing the nurse, but he was doing what would affect your
comfort far more. He was smoking cigarettes.”
 Miss Frink surprised her companion still further by laughing.
“Didn’t you hear him ask me for one in the motor? Now, I say he
was clever, with only one arm and one eye, and laid low in bed, to
manage to get cigarettes.”
Grimshaw stared. “It must have been Dr. Morton,” he said after a
pause; “but the point is that, when I told him you detested them, he
didn’t stop.”
“He smiled, perhaps?” Miss Frink did, herself.
“I don’t remember; but I wasn’t going to stand for that, you may
be sure, and I told him we couldn’t have the atmosphere of this
house—your house, vitiated.”
“Vitiated,” repeated Miss Frink musingly, “Fine word, Vitiated.”
“Growing childish, upon my soul,” thought the secretary. “The first
break!”
“The point is,” he declared with dignity, “the significant point is,
that he did not stop smoking. He asked the nurse to close the
transom.”
“Poor boy, he needn’t have done that,” said Miss Frink; “and, by
the way, Dr. Morton didn’t give him the cigarettes.”
“I suppose he got around the nurse, then.”
“No. She isn’t guilty either; and, Grim”—Miss Frink paused and put
back her eyeglasses through which she regarded the faithful one
steadily—“I am entirely prepared to go around wearing a gas-mask if
necessary. I might be needing one now for brimstone if it wasn’t for
that boy, and he is going to have any plaything it occurs to him to
want. Now, let’s get at these letters.”
Her secretary blinked, and put one hand to his temporarily
whirling head, while with the other he automatically gathered up the
mail.
 When, toward the close of that eventful gala day at Farrandale,
Miss Frink had courageously returned to the scene of the festivities,
two girls witnessed the burst of applause which greeted her as she
stepped from her secretary’s motor.
One of them, a typical flapper, her hair and her skirt equally
bobbed, gazed balefully at the apparition of the lady of the old
school as she bowed in response to the plaudits of her townspeople.
The other, a gentle-looking, blonde girl, smiled unconsciously at the
black satin figure, as she joined in the applause.
The eyes of the flapper snapped. “You shan’t do it, Millicent,” she
said, pulling her friend’s clapping hands apart.
“I must,” laughed Millicent. “I’m a loyal Ross-Grahamite.”
They were sitting in that part of the grandstand which had not
embarrassed Rex and Regina by falling.
“You can’t be loyal to her and to me, too. She fired me yesterday.”
“Oh, Damaris,” said the blonde girl sympathetically. “What
happened?”
“This,” said Damaris indicating her dark short locks.
“Just because you had your hair bobbed? But you ought to have
known. She won’t allow any clerk in the store with bobbed hair.”
“It’s a wonder she doesn’t insist that all the men let theirs grow in
a braid,” said Damaris scornfully. “Powdered hair and a queue would
just suit her, I’ll bet.”
“I’m very sorry you lost the position,” said Millicent. “You really
liked reading to her.”
“Well, yes, in a way. I liked the salary; but it cramped my style
awfully to go near the woman. I was always deadly afraid I’d say
something that wasn’t in the book, and I used to repeat ‘prunes and
prisms’ all the way from my house to her gate to get ready. I’ll never
look at a prune again, nor go near a prism.”
 “Wasn’t she agreeable to work for? I never spoke to her, but she
comes through the store quite often to look things over, and I think
she’s wonderful. You can feel her power—something like Queen
Elizabeth. Just think of her grit coming back here this afternoon.
Everybody says she had a miraculous escape. It must have been an
awful shock.”
“I take a little comfort out of that,” remarked Damaris coolly. “You
may be sure it was the man that was nearly killed. She’s
indestructible, all right.”
The girls glanced down at the seat of honor where Miss Frink was
enthroned during the last speech of the afternoon, preluding
adjournment of the leading citizens to the banquet.
“How did you get the position, Damaris?”
“Through my unbearable cousin, Leonard Grimshaw. He’s her
secretary.”
“Well, you’re an ungrateful rascal!” laughed Millicent. “I’ve seen
Mr. Grimshaw often in the store”—the speaker caught her breath
and turned grave. “He calls for grandpa’s rent, too.”
“That nose of his,” said Damaris, “got its shape entirely from
poking into other people’s affairs.”
“Who is the pretty lady with white hair who is with him so often?”
“Adèle Lumbard, a divorcée; no relation of Miss Frink’s, but calls
her ‘Aunt.’ Think of the lady of the old school having to house a
divorcée! It seems that Mrs. Lumbard’s grandmother was Miss
Frink’s best friend, the only person, I guess, she ever loved in her
life. So, when this girl’s marriage turned out unhappily, I rather think
Miss Frink guessed the fault wasn’t all on one side, and I’m just sure
Miss Frink took Mrs. Lumbard in as an offering to her friend who
died long ago. I’m just sure of it because it’s so plain the old woman
doesn’t love her any more than she does anybody else; only I think
she wants to know where Adèle is, evenings.”
 “Why, Damaris! How imaginative you are. Why doesn’t Mrs.
Lumbard read to her, then?”
“Yes, why doesn’t she? Just because Adèle’s reading is one of the
157 varieties of things Miss Frink doesn’t like.”
“And she liked yours,” said Millicent, her gentle voice sympathetic
again.
“Yes; Leonard got her to try me, and though she didn’t throw me
any bouquets she engaged me; but she informed me yesterday
when we went to the mat, that my skirts had always distressed her
by being so short, and now my hair settled it.” The speaker shook
her fluffy mane. “I met Leonard when I went into the house, and he
looked me over with his owl-eyes, and said: ‘You little fool, you’ve
done for yourself now.’ And I had, you see.”
“Is he always so affectionate?”
“Yes, as affectionate as a snapping turtle; but Mother looks up to
him as a great man because he’s closest to Miss Frink of anybody,
and everybody believes he’ll be her heir.”
“Will he help you again?”
Damaris shrugged her shoulders. “I suppose not. Why don’t you
and I open a Beauty Parlor?”
“One reason is that we haven’t any money.”
“Would you if we had?”
Millicent shook her head. “I can’t take any chances, Damaris, you
know that. My best plan is not to bob my hair and stick close to
Ross-Graham. Grandfather’s pension is so small, and our house is
old and we have to keep it in repair, and that costs. Mr. Grimshaw
says our rent is so small he can’t do anything; but not a day passes
that we don’t remember to be thankful for the ground being big
enough for Grandpa’s garden. We’re very happy.”
Damaris looked curiously into the hazel eyes regarding her, so full
of the warmth of sincerity.
 “You’d be a wonderful partner, Millicent. Even at school I used to
feel there was a sort of—well, a sort of perfume around where you
were.”
Millicent laughed. “Damaris, is that a compliment?”
“Well, sweetness, anyway. You’d get around the customers every
time. You’d really like them. I would, too, if I could make ’em look
pretty. I’d like to have Miss Frink come in! Wouldn’t I do her up!
Gosh, what she’d look like when she got out of the chair. Leonard,
too. Wouldn’t I like to give Leonard scalp massage!” The speaker
made a threatening gesture.
“Damaris!”
“Don’t swear, dear. Say, you haven’t told me how snappy I look.
‘Chick’s’ the word, isn’t it?”
Millicent looked at the dark, sparkling face. “Yes, but I wish you
hadn’t done it, dear.”
“Well,” Damaris sighed. “I can’t put it back. Mother wept, but I bet
I’ll get something just as good. Mother felt it was so refined to go to
that grand house every day and get Miss Frink to sleep.”
“To sleep?”
“Yes, I read to her after lunch every day, and I always left her
asleep. That was my job.”
Applause for the speech sounded, and Miss Frink rose.
“There she goes,” said Millicent as they watched the tall black
satin figure rise and take the arm of the Mayor. “Wonderful! She’s
wonderful!”
“Yes,” said Damaris. “They say the man that stopped the runaway
was awfully hurt. He may be dead by this time, but what cares she?
She’s back on her job, Queen of Farrandale.”
“But she took him to her own home,” said Millicent.
 “Yes,” Damaris smiled. “In Leonard’s car, they say. I’ll bet he
writhed. Good enough for him. I hope—”
“No, you don’t. Now, stop, Damaris. Let us get your mother, and
both of you come home with me to supper.”
“Well, that would be awfully nice, Millicent,” returned the girl more
gently. “You smell sweeter than usual.” The bobbed head was
somewhat lowered. “You can comfort Mother if anybody can.”
 CHAPTER V
MRS. LUMBARD

Susanna Frink’s life had included little of the softer emotions. Of

course, acquaintances and strangers had been voluble behind her
back with suggestions as to what she ought to do. A woman,
especially a rich woman, should have ties. Even the dignified,
handsome, old-fashioned house she lived in had not been her family
homestead, and it was declared an absurd purchase for a single
woman when she moved into it nearly twenty years ago. The
grounds, with their fine old trees, pleased her. The high iron fence,
with the elaborate gates opening upon the driveway, pleased her. In
the days of her restaurant—tea-house they would call it now—and
candy-making, she had looked upon this house as fulfilling every
idea she had ever had of elegance, and, when it fell to the
possession of a globe-trotting bachelor who had no use for it, she
bought it at a bargain as was her successful habit.
Those early business days had been shared by another girl, gay
Alice Ray, and to this partner of her joys and sorrows Susanna gave
her heart. It almost broke when Allen Morehouse married Alice and
carried her off to the Far West. The two corresponded for years, but
gradually the epistolary bond dissolved. Miss Frink grew more and
more absorbed in business, and the courageous, cheery chum of her
girlhood came seldom to her mind until one day she received a letter
signed “Adèle Lumbard.” It enclosed a picture of Alice Ray similar to
one in Miss Frink’s possession, and the writer claimed to be Alice’s
granddaughter. She stated that she was alone in the world having
been divorced after an unhappy marriage, and, not knowing which
way to turn, had thought of the friend her grandmother had loved so
devotedly, and wondered if for the sake of auld lang syne Miss Frink
would be willing to see her and give her advice as to what to do.
 Divorced! Susanna Frink’s eyebrows drew together. The lady of the
old school had no patience with divorce. But here was Alice Ray’s
granddaughter. Susanna looked at the picture, a smiling picture that
through all the ups and downs of her life had stood on her dresser:
an enlargement of it hung on her wall. There was no other picture in
the room. Memories stirred. She had no sense of outgoing warmth
toward the writer of the letter; but a divorce was a scandalous thing.
What had the girl done? Worse still, what was she likely to do if left
to herself?
Miss Frink had no private charities. She gave through her
secretary to the worthy organizations whose business it was to look
after such matters, and troubled herself no further about them. Her
secretary took care that the frequent letters of appeal should never
reach her, but when he read Mrs. Lumbard’s, and saw the
photograph, he knew that this did not come under the usual head;
and so Miss Frink was now looking into Alice Ray’s sweet eyes, and
the smile which seemed to express confidence that her good pal
Susanna would not fail her.
Miss Frink sent for Adèle Lumbard, and that young woman’s heart
bounded with relief and hope. She knew all about Miss Frink—
indeed, so closely had she kept apprised of her reputation for cold
shrewdness that she had grave doubts as to the reception of her
letter, and the curt lines of invitation rejoiced her. The old
photograph was returned to her without comment.
When she reached the big house, it was no surprise to have a
maid show her to her room and tell her that Miss Frink would see
her in the drawing-room in an hour.
A sensitive soul would have been chilled by such a reception.
Adèle Lumbard’s soul was not sensitive, but her body was, and she
wholly approved of the linen in her bathroom and on her bed, fine in
texture and all monogrammed. She liked the chaise longue and the
luxurious chairs. Her windows looked out on heavy-leafed maples
and graceful birches rising from a perfectly kept lawn. A pergola and
a fountain were charmingly placed.
 “If she’ll only take a fancy to me!” thought Adèle.
Those piercing eyes of Miss Frink’s studied the pretty woman who
entered the room at the appointed time. Perhaps there had been
stirrings of hope that the newcomer might bring reminders of the
one being she had loved with all her heart. If so, the hope died.
Adèle’s dark eyes and ivory skin surmounted by the fluffy, snowy
hair were striking, but as unlike the cheery brown and rose of sweet
Alice Ray as it was possible to imagine.
Miss Frink’s cold dry hand gave the plump smooth one a brief
shake.
“Be seated, Mrs. Lumbard!”
“Oh, must you say that!” was the impulsive response. “Do call me
Adèle for Grandmother’s sake.”
“I am sorry you got a divorce. I am a woman of the old school,”
was the uncompromising reply.
“You wouldn’t wish me to live with a bad man?” The dark eyes
opened with childlike appeal.
“No; but you needn’t have divorced him.”
“If I didn’t, he would always be pestering me.”
“You talk like a Southerner.”
“Yes. Didn’t Grandmother tell you her son went South and married
there?”
“Perhaps. I don’t remember. How old are you?”
“Twenty-eight. You’re looking at my hair. In a single night, Aunt
Susanna—Oh, excuse me,” with apparently sudden shyness,
“Grandmother always spoke of you to us all as our Aunt Susanna.
We were taught to love your picture.”
Miss Frink felt slightly pitiful toward that “single night” statement
and she kept the thought of her Alice in mind.
 “I don’t like harrowing details,” she said curtly, “so I won’t ask for
them.”
“Thank you so much”—with a pretty gesture of outgoing hands
—“I do so loathe going over it.”
“No wonder. I’m glad to see you don’t paint your face or dye your
hair.”
The dark eyebrows lifted in surprise. “That’s the way I was raised,
Aunt Susanna,” was the meek reply.
“Well, you’d better stay on here a while,” said Miss Frink at last,
“and we’ll think what it will be best for you to do. Let us see. How
long ago did Alice—did your grandmother die?”
The dark eyes looked off in thought. “I was a little girl. It must be
about fifteen years now.”
Miss Frink nodded.
“What an old Tartar!” thought Adèle that night as she went to bed;
but she had landed, as she expressed it to herself, and possession
was nine points of the law. She hugged herself for her cleverness in
eschewing rosy cheeks and having nothing on her hands but the
slender wedding ring.
In the careful study she had made of Miss Frink and her
surroundings before coming here, she had learned about Leonard
Grimshaw. The rumor was that, although Miss Frink had not really
adopted him, he was the closest factor in her life; and when Adèle
met him at dinner that first evening, and found that he was not a
guest, but living in the house, she realized still further his
importance. Realized also that he might resent her claims, and so
she set herself to win his regard; while he, hearing her call Miss
Frink “Aunt Susanna” unrebuked, understood that she was to be
accepted.
They quickly formed a tacit alliance. Adèle’s efforts to get on
intimate terms with the Queen of Farrandale were steadily repulsed,
but her pride was not hurt as she observed that Miss Frink treated
everybody with the same brusqueness. She discerned that the one
sentiment of her hostess’s life was still a living memory. The two
pictures Miss Susanna kept near her proved it, and one day, a week
after Adèle’s arrival, when the lawyer came and was closeted alone
with Miss Frink for an hour, Mrs. Lumbard felt jubilantly certain that
the visit was for the purpose of inserting her own name in the old
lady’s will.
Adèle longed to become necessary in some way to her hostess. It
was absurd for Leonard’s young cousin to be coming every day to
read to her. She made an excuse to read something aloud one day,
but Miss Frink interrupted her.
“I am blunt, Adèle. I don’t have time for beating about the bush,
and your reading makes me nervous. It’s all vowels.”
“I’m sorry, Aunt Susanna,” returned the young woman meekly. “I
do so wish I could do something for you—the little while I’m here.”
The guest was always referring to the brevity of her visit, but weeks
were slipping by. “Do you care for music?”
“Yes, moderately,” said Miss Frink carelessly. “There’s a Steinway
grand down in the drawing-room. I don’t know when it has been
touched.”
“I noticed that and was so tempted, but I didn’t want to play
without your permission.”
“Oh, go ahead any evening. I don’t want a racket in the daytime.”
So that very evening Adèle, in the simple black georgette gown
which made her white throat and arms dazzling, sat down at the
piano in the empty drawing-room and had the triumph of seeing
Miss Frink come through the portières in evident surprise, and sit
down with folded hands to listen to the finished runs that were
purling across the neglected keys.
It was two weeks after Adèle’s arrival that Rex and Regina ran
away; and, in the excitement of Hugh’s illness, Mrs. Lumbard had
sufficient adroitness not to risk irritating Miss Frink’s rasped nerves.
The piano was closed and she effaced herself as much as possible.
The secretary’s exasperation at the intrusion of the young hero
beneath their roof amused her. He confided to her the paralyzing
proof of Miss Frink’s indulgence in the matter of the cigarettes.
“Oh, if she would only go around the family!” sighed Adèle.
Grimshaw gave her one look of surprise, then shrugged his
shoulders.
“That would certainly be the shortest way out of the house for
you,” he said dryly.
Adèle colored. “You know very well you’d like it, too.”
“If I did, that would be a very different matter. I’m disgusted with
the women of to-day.”
The secretary was sitting at his desk, and Mrs. Lumbard was in
the usual pose of hunting for a book which she always adopted in
her visits to the study lest the lady of the old school should come in
upon their interview. Grimshaw had a sort of fascination for her
inasmuch as his position was certainly the one nearest the throne,
and he had a large and undisputed authority in Miss Frink’s affairs.
Adèle’s closest watch had never been able to discern any evidence of
personal attachment in Miss Frink for her secretary, and he certainly
had no cause of jealousy for Adèle on that score. This fact, more
than her physical attractiveness, caused him to accept her friendly
overtures and even to relieve himself occasionally in an exasperated
burst of confidence.
For the first five years of his employment by Miss Frink he had
been youthfully docile, attentive, and devoted to learning her
business affairs. At the end of that period she invited him for
convenience to reside in her house, and from that time on he had
been playing for the large stake which everybody believed he would
win.
 He learned her likes and dislikes, never allowed his devotion to
lapse into servility, and, with apparent unconsciousness of catering
to her, kept early hours, read a great deal, and played with her
endless games of double solitaire.
She sometimes suggested that he seek a wider social life, but to
such hints he always replied, with a demure dignity in amusing
contrast to her brusque strength, that his manner of life suited him
excellently, but that if she wished to entertain he was at her service.
Miss Frink at times thought remotely that she should like to
entertain. She had taken much interest in perfecting the details of
her home, inside and out; but, when she came up against the
question of setting a definite date and issuing invitations, she was
stirred with the same apprehensions a fish might be supposed to
undergo if asked to take a stroll around the garden. She spoke of
the matter sometimes, and her secretary bowed gravely and assured
her that he was quite ready to take her orders; but the fish always
turned away from such considerations and dived a little deeper into
the congenial discussion of her business matters.
Leonard Grimshaw thought very highly of himself in the present,
and had many secret plans for an important and powerful future.
He looked now scornfully at Adèle standing by the bookcase with
her self-convicted blush.
“I am disgusted with the women of to-day,” he said.
“Why shouldn’t we smoke as well as you?” asked Adèle.
“I don’t,” he returned finally, his eyes fixed on the papers on his
desk. “You try it once here, and you’ll find it will be a few degrees
worse than Damaris bobbing her hair.”
“Poor youngster,” said Adèle. “I must say, Aunt Susanna—”
“Well, what?” said Miss Frink, suddenly coming into the room,
“Aunt Susanna what?”—she went to the desk and threw down some
papers. “File those, Grim. Speak, and let the worst be known,
Adèle.”
 The secretary certainly admired his colleague as he rose to his
feet. Without altering her pose, Adèle’s voice melted into the meek
and childlike tone of her habit.
“I was speaking of what a marvel it is that you have had no
reaction from the excitement of that dreadful day. That is what it is
to be a thoroughbred, Aunt Susanna.”
“Thorough-nothing,” snorted the lady. “What was the use of my
lying down and rolling over because I wasn’t hurt?”
“And Rex is all right again, isn’t he?” said Adèle.
“Yes, he’s got over his scratch, and the new coachman does you
credit, Grim. He has decent ideas about a check rein. Order the
horses for me at three. Dr. Morton says it will not hurt Mr. Stanwood
to go for a short drive.”
Miss Frink hurried out of the room, and the two she left in it
stared at each other. Adèle smothered a laugh behind a pretty hand,
but the secretary had forgotten her smooth diplomacy in his
annoyance.
“I wonder if she is going with him. The nurse is quite enough,” he
said, as if to himself.
“I wish she’d ask me to go,” said Adèle. “I haven’t had a glimpse
of him since I saw him lifted out of the road.”
“Nor she, much,” said Grimshaw. “She has had the nurse make
frequent reports, but she hasn’t been in the sick-room at all. Why
should she be bothered?”
“No reason, of course. She is not exactly a mush of love and
sympathy. What I was really going to say, Leonard, was that I don’t
see how a young attractive man like you entombs himself away from
his kind the way you do, and must have done for years.”
Grimshaw raised his eyebrows as one accepting his due, and
brushed back his thin crest of hair, with a careless hand.
“I work pretty hard,” he said.
 Adèle looked apprehensively toward the door, then back at him.
“Is it always like this?” she breathed in a hushed voice.
“Like what?”
“Days all alike. Evenings all alike.” Adèle clenched her hands.
“Nobody coming, nobody going. Why haven’t you dried up and
blown away!”
Grimshaw regarded her. She had undoubtedly become somewhat
of a safety-valve for his feelings, since the day when Miss Frink
brought a foreign body into the ordered régime of the big silent
house, but he could do without her. He would rather do without
everybody. His eyes behind the owl spectacles had a slight inimical
gleam.
“Why do you stay if you don’t like it?” he returned.
The young woman straightened up resentfully.
“For the same reason you do,” she retorted.
“That is a very silly remark,” he said coldly. “A business man stays
by his business interests.”
She regarded him in silence, and her stiff posture relaxed. He was
powerful and she was powerless. She had put herself in his power
many times. He could undo her with Miss Frink any hour.
“I’m alone in the world, Leonard,” she said, suddenly becoming
self-pitying. “I’m so glad to have found a friend in you. Don’t desert
me. I’d love Aunt Susanna if she would let me.”
“Better not try it on,” returned the secretary dryly, and again
seated himself at his desk.
“But I’m human!” she exclaimed, suddenly appealing, “and I’m
young. Can’t we ever have any fun? Aren’t there any trusties in this
prison?”
“Adèle!” He looked up suddenly and his voice cracked. “Keep these
ideas to yourself, if you please. This is no prison. You can go free
any day.”
She caught her breath. She longed to tell him he was a cautious
prig; but for the first time she felt afraid of him. He had confided in
her somewhat in his irritation at the stranger upstairs, but that idea
was no longer a novelty, and now she felt that he was safely
withdrawing into his shell.
 CHAPTER VI
VISITING THE SICK

As her secretary had said, it was Miss Frink’s policy to keep away
from the White Room. Experts, the doctor and the nurse, had charge
of it. Why should she hover about like a fussy old hen, getting in the
way and causing confusion? She had her business to attend to, and
there was no reason why her life should not go on as systematically
as before.
So she argued. Nevertheless, this was more easily said than done.
She had been shocked out of her rut, and so long as that stalwart
figure in bed in the White Room remained recumbent, she knew she
could not really settle into her usual state of mind.
Miss Damon, the nurse, came to her three times a day with
reports, and they were the interesting moments of the day to her.
This noon she awaited the visit with unusual eagerness; and she
hailed the young woman with a cheerful greeting.
“Dr. Morton says Mr. Stanwood may go for a drive this afternoon,”
she said.
“Yes; he is sitting up by the window now, Miss Frink. I thought
perhaps you would like to come in and visit him. He is rather low-
spirited, you see.”
“Is he? Is he?” responded Miss Frink tensely. “What do you think
he wants?”
“Oh, just to get well, I suppose. Convalescence is the hardest part
after such a fever as he has had.”
“Well, I’ll come,” said Miss Frink, straightening herself valiantly,
and she followed to the White Room, where in an armchair by the
window sat a young man with long, pensive eyes. He was wearing,
besides a gloomy expression, a small mustache and short beard
carefully trimmed. A soft blanket was folded about his shoulders and
another spread over the feet that rested on a cushioned stool.
Miss Frink’s startled eyes drew from the nurse the explanation that
Dr. Morton had not wished the patient to be shaved as yet, and
there was no change of expression in the pale, handsome face as
Hugh looked up at her approach.
“Are you willing to shake hands with the old thing that got you
into this mess?” inquired the visitor, and Hugh took her offered
hand.
“I see they let you look out of both eyes now.” She seated herself
near him.
“Yes, that scratch is all right,” he responded.
“Miss Damon thought I would be a cheerful visitor; but I suppose
I’ll never look cheerful to you. Now I just want to know if there is
anything more we can do for you than is being done.” Miss Frink’s
emphatic tone had its usual businesslike ring. “Don’t you want to
smoke?”
At this Hugh’s mustache did curve upward a little, showing a line
of gleaming teeth.
“You don’t like it,” he returned.
“Who said so? Anyway, you’ll teach me.”
Hugh’s smile widened. “She is a good old sport,” he reflected.
“I don’t want that now,” he said, grave again.
“Well, is there anything on your mind?” pursued Miss Frink. The
nurse had left the room. Her taciturn patient had never said an
unnecessary word to her. Perhaps his hostess would have more
success.
“Now, your Aunt Sukey,” went on Miss Frink in a gentler tone than
could have been expected from her. “Don’t be surprised that we
know about your Aunt Sukey; for you called for her incessantly in
your delirium, and I assure you if you would like to see her it will
give me all the pleasure in the world to send for her and have her
stay as long as you like.”
The effect of this offer astonished the speaker. Color slowly flowed
up all over the pale face, and Hugh grinned.
“Did I really call for her? Priceless! No, no, Miss Frink. You’re a
trump, but I don’t want her sent for.”
“Not on good terms, then, I judge from the way you take it.”
“No, we’re not. You’ve hit the nail on the head. I imagine that’s
your way.” Still coloring, he met the solicitous eyes bent upon him as
Miss Frink grimaced her glasses off.
“Perhaps she is opposing a love affair. Don’t mind an old woman’s
plain speaking; but, of course, we saw the sweet face in your
photograph, and it doesn’t seem as if there could be anything wrong
with that girl. I like the quaint way she does her hair. I’m a lady of
the old school, and it’s refreshing to see a coiffure like that in this
day of bobbed idiots. Did Aunt Sukey oppose her?”
“With tooth and nail,” replied Hugh. “You are a mind reader.”
“Well—dear boy”—Miss Frink hesitated—“I want to do anything in
this world I can for you. Are you sure I can’t do anything in this
matter?”
“It’s a little late,” said Hugh.
“Never too late to mend,” returned Miss Frink stoutly and
hopefully. She regarded the beauty of her companion, considering
him in the rôle of a lover. “You look just as if you were ready to sing
‘Faust,’” she said. “I shall call her Marguerite until you tell me all
about it.”
Miss Frink little suspected that she had set fire to a train of
thought which hardened her companion against her, and accented
the repugnance to the part he was playing; a repugnance which had
dominated him ever since the breaking of his fever.
 Many times he had definitely made up his mind that, the minute
sufficient strength returned, he would disappear from Farrandale and
repay John Ogden every cent of his investment if it took years to
accomplish it. Two things deterred him: one, his last interview with
Ogden in which the latter reminded him of his lack of initiative and
self-control—in other words, his spinelessness. That stung his pride.
“Remember,” said John Ogden, “of the unspoken word you are
master. The spoken word is master of you.” The other incentive to
continuing the rôle in which he had made such a triumphant début
was Miss Frink’s secretary. Hugh was a youth of intense likes and
dislikes very quickly formed. In spite of himself he liked his brusque,
angular hostess. To be sure, saving any one’s life creates an interest
in the rescued, but it was not only that. Hugh liked the sporting
quality of his great-aunt. He liked the way she had done her duty by
him and not fussed around the sick-room. She was a good fellow,
and he didn’t like her to be under the influence, perhaps domination,
of the spectacled cockatoo who was also, in his own estimation, cock
of the walk. If Miss Frink had kept away from the White Room,
Leonard Grimshaw had not done so. He came in frequently with a
masterful air and the seriousness with which he took himself, and his
patronizing manner to patient and nurse grated on the convalescent.
“I’ll be darned if I’ll leave Aunt Sukey to him,” was the conclusion
Hugh invariably reached after one of his visits.
“There is something on my mind, Miss Frink,” said Hugh, now,
“and that is Mr. Ogden. I’m sure he is wondering why he doesn’t
hear from me.”
“I’ll write him at once,” said Miss Frink. “It shall go out this
afternoon. We’ll mail it together.”
The patient’s long eyes rolled toward her listlessly.
“Yes. You’re going for a drive with me. Dr. Morton says you may.”
“H’m,” returned Hugh. “Not until I get a little more starch in my
legs, I guess. I can barely get to this chair from the bed.”
 “Oh, of course the butler and the coachman will carry you over
the stairs.”
“Thanks, no. I prefer not to be handled like a rag doll.”
“What have you got that blanket on for?” demanded Miss Frink,
suddenly becoming conscious of the patient’s garb.
“Why—” John Ogden in his preparations for his protégé had not
had the foresight to prepare for inaction on his part. “I—I haven’t
any bathrobe with me.”
Here the door opened and Leonard Grimshaw walked in. It
entertained Hugh to note the abasement of the uplifted crest as the
secretary saw his employer.
“I beg pardon. I didn’t know you were here, Miss Frink.”
“Whether you knew it or not, you might have knocked,” she
retorted. “Look here, Grim, Mr. Stanwood doesn’t wish to drive to-
day, so I am going now instead of later.”
“Now, Miss Frink?” deferentially. “Luncheon will be served in
fifteen minutes.”
“Now,” repeated Miss Frink. “There is an errand I wish to do.
Order the horses at once, please.”
The secretary bowed in silence and withdrew.
“Bully for you, old girl. You know your own mind,” thought Hugh,
and at that moment the nurse appeared with a tempting tray. The
patient regarded it with a little less apathy than usual. The last few
minutes had been an appetizer.
Miss Frink rose. “Eat all you can, my boy. I shall let you see my
letter to Mr. Ogden before I mail it.”
“Do you know his address?”
“Certainly; Ross Graham buys of him. To tell the truth, I should
have written him long before this if it hadn’t been I was ashamed to
have him know the reception I gave his friend.”
 Hugh smiled faintly. Age must have ripened Aunt Sukey. She was
certainly a good sort. Grimshaw couldn’t put it over her whatever Mr.
Ogden might think. Hugh still smiled as he thought of the depressed
crest, and the deference of that voice so full of unction.
The secretary shook his head as he departed on his errand. To
postpone luncheon—why, it was nearly as unheard of as to connive
at cigarettes!
“She’s breaking—breaking,” he reflected. “It’s the beginning of the
end.”