ht of Peter Ruff in his immaculate evening clothes.

"Well," he remarked, grumblingly, "you seem to find a good deal of
pleasure in this gadding about!"

She threw her soiled fan on the table.

"If I do," she answered, "you are not the one to sit there and reproach
me with it, are you?"

"It's gone far enough, anyway," John Dory said. "It's gone further than
I meant it to go. Understand me, Maud--it's finished! I'll find your old
sweetheart for myself."

She laughed heartily.

"You needn't trouble," she answered, with a little toss of the head.
"I am not such a fool as you seem to think me. Mr. Ruff has made an
appointment with him."

There was a change in John Dory's face. The man's eyes were bright--they
almost glittered.

"You mean that your friend Mr. Ruff is going to produce Spencer
Fitzgerald?" he exclaimed.

"He has promised to," she answered. "John," she declared, throwing
herself into an easy-chair, "I feel horrid about it. I wonder what Mr.
Ruff will think when he knows!"

"You can feel how you like," John Dory answered bluntly, "so long as I
get the handcuffs on Spencer Fitzgerald's wrists!"

She shuddered. She looked at her husband with distaste.

"Don't talk about it!" she begged sharply. "It makes me feel the meanest
creature that ever crawled. I can't help feeling, too, that Mr. Ruff
will think me a wretch--quite the gentleman he's been all the time! I
never knew any one half so nice!"

John Dory set down his empty glass.

"I wonder," he said, looking at her thoughtfully, "what made him take
such a fancy to you! Rather sudden, wasn't it, eh?"

Maud tossed her head.

"I don't see anything so wonderful about that," she declared.

"Listen to me, Maud," her husband said, rising to his feet. "You
aren't a fool--not quite. You've spent some time with Peter Ruff.
How much--think carefully--how much does he remind you of Spencer
Fitzgerald?"

"Not at all," she answered promptly. "Why, he is years older, and though
Spencer was quite the gentleman, there's something about Mr. Ruff, and
the way he dresses and knows his way about--well, you can tell he's been
a gentleman all his life."

John Dory's face fell.

"Think again," he said.

She shook her head.

"Can't see any likeness," she declared. "He did remind me a little of
him just at first, though," she added, reflectively--"little things he
said, and sort of mannerisms. I've sort of lost sight of them the last
few times, though."