she asked. "You think
that there is a bare chance?"

"There is always the hundredth chance!" Peter Ruff replied.

Peter Ruff and Miss Brown supped at the Milan that night as they had
arranged, but it was not a cheerful evening. Brian Sotherst had been
very popular among Letty Shaw's little circle of friends, and the
general feeling was one of horror and consternation at this thing which
had befallen him. Austen Abbot, too, was known to all of them, and
although a good many of the men--and even the women--were outspoken
enough to declare at once that it served him right, nevertheless, the
shock of death--death without a second's warning--had a paralysing
effect even upon those who were his severest critics. Violet Brown
spoke to a few of her friends--introduced Peter Ruff here and there--but
nothing was said which could throw in any way even the glimmerings of
a new light upon the tragedy. It all seemed too hopelessly and fatally
obvious.

About twenty minutes before closing time, the habitues of the place were
provided with something in the nature of a sensation. A little party
entered who seemed altogether free from the general air of gloom.
Foremost among them was a very young and exceedingly pretty girl, with
light golden hair waved in front of her forehead, deep blue eyes, and
the slight, airy figure of a child. She was accompanied by another young
woman, whose appearance was a little too obvious to be prepossessing,
and three or four young men--dark, clean-shaven, dressed with the
irritating exactness of their class--young stockbrokers or boys about
town. Miss Brown's eyes grew very wide open.

"What a little beast!" she exclaimed.

"Who?" Peter Ruff asked.

"That pretty girl there," she answered--"Fluffy Dean her name is. She is
Letty Shaw's protege, and she wouldn't have dreamed of allowing her to
come out with a crowd like that. Tonight, of all nights," she continued,
indignantly, "when Letty is away!"

Peter Ruff was interested.

"So that is Miss Fluffy Dean," he remarked, looking at her curiously.
"She seems a little excited."

"She's a horrid little wretch!" Miss Brown declared. "I hope that some
one will tell Letty, and that she will drop her now. A girl who would
do such a thing as that when Letty is in such trouble isn't worth taking
care of! Just listen to them all!"

They were certainly becoming a little boisterous. A magnum of champagne
was being opened. Fluffy Dean's cheeks were already fl