lad to see his mistress brighten
as her eyes swept the burnished shoreless expanse.

Haney, still troubled by her languid air and gloomy face, took heart,
and talked of what Chicago was in the days when he saw it and what it
was now. "People say it don't improve. But listen: when I was here the
Palmer House was the newly built wonder of the West, the streets were
tinkling with bobtail horse-cars. And now look at it!"

Bertha went back to her room, still in nerveless and despondent mood,
not knowing what to do. The Captain proposed the usual round. "We'll
take an auto-car, and go to the parks, and inspect the Lake Shore Drive
and the Potter Palmer castle. Then we'll go down and see where the
World's Fair was. Then we'll visit the Wheat Pit. 'Tis all there is,
bedad."

Lucius, who had been answering the 'phone in the hall, came in at the
moment to say; "A lady wishes to speak with Mrs. Haney."

"A lady! Who?"

"A certain Mrs. Brent--a friend of Miss Franklin's."

Bertha's face darkened. "Oh I'd forgot all about her. Miss Franklin gave
me a letter to her," she explained, as she went out.

She had no wish to see Mrs. Brent. On the contrary, she had an aversion
to seeing or doing anything. But there was something compelling in the
cool, sweet, quiet voice which came over the line, and before realizing
it she had promised to meet her at eleven o'clock.

Mrs. Brent then added: "I am consumed with desire to see you, for Dor--I
mean Miss Franklin--has been writing to me about you. You're just in
time to come to a little dinner of mine--don't make any engagement for
to-morrow night. I'm coming down immediately."

Bertha quite gravely answered, "All right, I'll be here," and hung up
the receiver, committed to an interview that became formidable, now that
the sweetness of the voice had died out of her ears.

"Who was it?" asked the Captain.

"A friend of Miss Franklin's--sounds just like her voice, but I think
she's only a cousin. She wants to see me, and I've promised to be here
at eleven."

The Captain looked a little disappointed. "Well, we can take a spin up
the lake. Lucius, go hire a buckboard and we're off."

"There's an auto-car waiting, sir. I ordered it half an hour ago."

The gambler looked at him humorously. "Ye must be a mind-reader."

A tap on the door called the man out, and when he returned he bore a
telegram. "For you, Captain," he said, presenting it on the salver.

The gambler took it with sudd