ation with the offender and his pillory. He set his
mind on the achievement. To succeed, he must monopolize her company
until she quitted the hotel en route for London.

Then he thought of Mrs. de la Vere as a helper. Her seeming
shallowness, her glaring affectations, no longer deceived him.
The mask lifted for an instant by that backward glance as she
convoyed Helen to her room the previous night had proved altogether
ineffective since their talk on the veranda. He did not stop to ask
himself why such a woman, volatile, fickle, blown this way and that
by social zephyrs, should champion the cause of romance. He simply
thanked Heaven for it, nor sought other explanation than was given
by his unwavering belief in the essential nobility of her sex.

Therein he was right. Had he trusted to her intuition, and told
Millicent Jaques at the earliest possible moment exactly how matters
stood between Helen and himself, it is only reasonable to suppose that
the actress would have changed her plan of campaign. She had no
genuine antipathy toward Helen, whose engagement to Spencer would be
her strongest weapon against Bower. As matters stood, however, Helen
was a stumbling block in her path, and her jealous rage was in process
of being fanned to a passionate intensity, when Spencer, searching for
Mrs. de la Vere, saw Millicent in the midst of a group composed of the
Vavasours, mother and son, the General, and his daughters.

Mrs. de Courcy Vavasour was the evil spirit who brought about this
sinister gathering. She was awed by Bower, she would not risk a
snubbing from Mrs. de la Vere, and she was exceedingly annoyed to
think that Helen might yet topple her from her throne. To one of her
type this final consideration was peculiarly galling. And the
too susceptible Georgie would be quite safe with the lady from
the Wellington Theater. Mrs. Vavasour remembered the malice in
Millicent's fine eyes when she refused to quail before Bower's wrath.
A hawk in pursuit of a plump pigeon would not turn aside to snap up an
insignificant sparrow. So, being well versed in the tactics of these
social skirmishes, she sought Millicent's acquaintance.

The younger woman was ready to meet her more than halfway. The hotel
gossips were the very persons whose aid she needed. A gracious smile
and a pouting complaint against the weather were the preliminaries. In
two minutes they were discussing Helen, and General Wragg was drawn
into their chat. Georgie