hat?"

"To get myself some friends. I have none," said she serenely.

Now you must not think Roger a fool, for he was not. You see, you
never heard the voice that spoke to him. If you had, and had possessed
any experience or knowledge of the world, you would have realised that
the owner of that voice possessed neither or else was a very great and
convincing actress. Mere print cannot excuse him, perhaps, but I give
you my word he was as a matter of fact excusable, since he was a
bachelor. Most men are very susceptible to the human voice, especially
to the female human voice, and it has always been a matter of the
deepest wonder to me that the men who do not hear a lovely one once in
the year are most under the dominion of their females. I mean, of
course, the Americans. It is one of the greatest proofs of the power
of these _belles Americaines_ that they wield it in spite of the
rustiness of this, their chief national weapon.

The bell notes, the grave, full richness of this veiled woman's voice
touched Roger deeply and with a brusque motion he drew out from his
pocket a banknote and pressed it into the hand under his arm.

"Take this and go home," he said severely. "If you will promise me to
call at an address I will give you, I will guarantee you a decent
means of livelihood. Will you promise me?"

She reached down without a word into a bag that hung _en chatelaine_
at her waist and drew out something in her turn.

"I have a great many of those," she said placidly, "and more at home.
See them!"

And under his face she thrust a double handful of stamped paper--all
green.

"Each one of these is called twenty dollars," she informed him, "and
some of them are called fifty dollars. They are in the bottom of the
bag. I do not think that I need any more."

Roger stared at her.

"Put that away directly," he said, "and lift your veil so that I can
see who you are. There is something wrong here."

They stood in the lee of the flaring stall, a pair so obvious in their
relation to each other, one would say, as to require no comment beyond
the cynical indifference of the red-eyed woman who tended it. No doubt
she had long ceased to count the well-dressed, athletic men who drew
indifferently clothed young women into the shelter of her stand. And
yet no one of his Puritan ancestors could have been further in spirit
from her dreary inferences than this Roger. Nor do I believe him to be
so exceptional in this as to cause