is there; that was all there was to it.
He, Laurie, would have to wait for another encounter. Meantime he might
run around to the club and box for an hour. He had been getting a bit
out of condition this month. A bout with McDonald, the club trainer,
would do him good. Or, by Jove, he'd go and see Louise Ordway!

He had promised his new brother-in-law, Bob Warren, to keep an eye on
Bob's sister while Warren and Barbara were in Japan, and Laurie had kept
the promise with religious fidelity and very real pleasure. He immensely
liked and admired Mrs. Ordway, who seemed, strangely, to be always at
home of late. He had formed the habit of running in several times a
week. Louise not only talked, but, as Laurie expressed it, "she said
things." He had spent with her many of the afternoons and evenings Bangs
checked up to the cabarets.

He glanced at his watch. For an hour he had been impersonating a
gentleman engaged in profound meditation, with the sole result that he
had decided to go to see Louise. It was quite possible he could enlist
her interest in Doris. Now, that was an inspiration! Perhaps Mrs. Ordway
would understand Doris. Every woman, he vaguely believed, understood all
other women. He smoothed his hair, straightened his tie, and hurried
off.

He found Mrs. Ordway reclining on a _chaise longue_ before an open fire,
in the boudoir in which his sister Barbara had spent so many hours of
the past year, playing the invalid to sleep. She wore a superb Mandarin
coat, of soft and ravishing tints, and her love for rich colors was
reflected in the autumnal tones of her room and even in the vari-colored
flames of her driftwood fire. To Louise these colors were as definite
as mellow trumpet-tones. She had responded to them all her life. She was
responding to them still, now that she lay dying among them. Something
in their superb arrogance called forth an answering note from her own
arrogant soul.

She greeted her brother's young brother-in-law with the almost
disdainful smile she now turned on everything, but which was softened a
little for him. Ignorant of the malady that was eating her life away, as
indeed all her friends were ignorant of it, save Barbara and her
doctors, Laurie delighted in the picture she made. He showed his delight
as he dropped into a chair by her side. They fell at once into the
casual banter that characterized their intercourse.

"I wonder why I ever leave here?" he mused aloud, as the clock struc