shell of her radiant womanhood, her spirit seemed to him as crude and sexless as that of the child of twelve years ago. Hers was the innocent hardihood of a child. He told himself that there is a lack of sensitiveness when the feelings have been blunted and when they have never been waked. The outward effect is the same, the inner causes are worlds apart. Like many shy persons not accustomed to utter their thoughts, she had, once she let herself go, no gage of what was startling and what was not. She proclaimed her daring sentiments with no desire to produce an effect, with no consciousness that they were daring.

"I have known two girls who made brilliant marriages, who cried all night before their weddings. They both cared for somebody else. In the case of one girl I think her relatives pushed her into it, but the other girl did it of her own free choice. You see, they had both been somebodies all their lives, and they could n't bear to drop out. I think I should do just the same in their places. I could n't let a Willoughby Smith get by. So I am very lucky that there is no one for me to shed a tear over."

She mused a moment, then looked quick interest.

up

with

Were you ever in love, Bim?" Never-in earnest. But I'm young, and I still hope."

"You think it is worth while?"

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'Yes. You see, I am not like you and royalty, who have to contract alliances. I'm poor enough to afford luxuries. I can marry some one I like."

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Oh, I hope that you will find her very soon, Morry, if you want her."

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Thank you, Honor bright."

“But it seems a sort of pity, does n't it," she mused-"your coming, just as I'm about to be married?" He started, but there was never more than meets the ear in anything that Honor said. "I mean that I shall be too busy to have any good of you. After the wedding, though, when we are settled in our new house, we must see a lot of you. That is, if you want to," she added, with a laugh. "I keep forgetting that you did n't come here to-day to see me-you were n't prepared to find me, even. You came to see the old house."

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How long have you lived in it, dear girl?" "We bought it about a year after you went away. Mr. Gelbenbach failed,-there must have been a slump in pickles,-and father

always loved this house. Does this room look natural, Bim?"

"Mother's sitting-room? It is so natural that I want to cry."

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Oh, Bim dear, you ought to own the house."

"I came to-day to talk with the owner about buying it. But I love to think of your living in it, Honor."

"Ah, but I must leave it when I marry. And oh, Morry, Willoughby Smith wants to pull it down, with the three beyond, which he owns, and put up a sky-scraper. He was talking to father about it last night, and father seemed rather inclined to let it go." “Oh, never mind the house, child. I want to talk about you.'

"I have told you all about me, already."

Honor, are you honestly glad I 've come back-❞

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Glad? Why, I told father, the other night, that you were the only person in the world I had ever been really fond of."

His voice came huskily:

The telephone bell jingled. Honor immediately became preoccupied, automatically

murmuring, "Pardon," as she hastened to obey the noisy mandate.

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Certainly," answered Maurice to the empty walls. "The victim of the telephone habit would leave his father's death-bed to answer a call."

Her voice was heard in the passage.

"Yes, immediately. I am so sorry, mother. I've been detained. Yes, I'll start this very minute. I'm all ready. I am ever so sorry, dear."

In a moment she reappeared in the doorway, fastening her long fur stole as she spoke. Bim, I was so interested in you that I entirely forgot an appointment to meet mother. I must go, this very second. But you'll come again very soon, won't you?"

TH

CHAPTER XIII

MR. ALDEN'S TRIBULATIONS

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HOUGH the sharp young man who so looked so like and yet so unlike a gentlemanly salesman" called himself a Confidential Agent, in him no more than in another would Denys wholly confide. Early on the Thursday morning he panted into the Private Inquiry Office, looking as if he had not slept, his elf-lock hanging over his eyes, his motions more jerky, his speech more staccato than ever. He described Maurice's departure from the Opera-House, and the concomitant disappearance of the valet. As Monsieur Tolna had neither friends nor enemies in New York, -absolutely no acquaintances outside his profession,-Mr. Alden could suggest no place to which he could have gone of his own accord, no motive for his disappearance. Most probably he had been kidnapped and was held for ransom. He must have been