carelessness. The gown was cerise in color, and from her forearm
hung a great fan of green plumes. In all the hotels and theaters of New
York one could hardly have come upon a figure that night more striking
in its finished and fresh young womanhood. Larry trembled all over; his
heart tried to throb madly up out of his throat.

At length he spoke. And all he was able to say was:

"Maggie."

She whirled about, and telephone and receiver almost fell from her
hands. She went pale, and stared at him, her mouth agape, her dark eyes
wide.

"La-Larry!" she whispered.

"Maggie!" he said again.

"La-Larry! I thought you were in Chicago."

"I'm here now, Maggie--especially to see you." He did not know it, but
his voice was husky. He noted that she was still holding the telephone
and receiver. "It was I who put in that long-distance call. But I came
instead. So you might as well hang up."

She obeyed, and set the instrument upon its little table.

"Larry--where have you been all this while?"

He was now conscious enough to note that there was tense concern in her
manner. He exulted at it, and crossed and took her hand.

"Right here in New York, Maggie."

"In hiding?"

"In mighty good hiding."

"But, Larry--don't you know it's dangerous for you to come out? And to
come here of all places?"

"I couldn't help myself. I simply had to see you, Maggie."

He was still holding her hand, and there was an instinctive grip of her
fingers about his. For a moment--the moment during which her outer or
more conscious self was startled into forgetfulness--they gazed at each
other silently and steadily, eye into eye.

And then the things the Duchess had said crept back into his mind, and
he said:

"Maggie, I've come to take you out of all this. Get ready--let's leave
at once."

That broke the spell. She jerked away from him, and instantly she was
the old Maggie: the Maggie who had jeered at him and defied him the
night of his return from prison when he had announced his new plan--the
Maggie who had flaunted him as "stool" and "squealer" the evening she
had left the Duchess's to enter upon this new career.

"No, you're not going to take me out of this!" she flung at him. "I
told you once before that I wasn't going your way! I told you that I was
going my own way! That held for then, and it holds for now, and it will
hold for always!"

The softer mood which had come upon him by surprise at sight of her and
filled him, no