is. "Just a moment, please!"

Harvey stopped, chilled to the marrow.

"It was all a joke," he said, quickly. "Just a little joke of mine.
Ha! Ha!" It was a sepulchral laugh.

"I am John Buckley, from the offices of Barnes & Canby, representing
Miss Duluth, your wife, I believe? It isn't a pleasant duty I have to
perform Mr.--Mr--er--but, of course, you understand we are acting in
the interests of our client and if we can get together on this----"

"Can't you come some other day?" stammered Harvey, holding Phoebe's
hand very tightly in his. "I'm--I'm not well to-day. We--we are
waiting now for the health officer to--to see whether it's smallpox or
just a rash of----"

The pleasant young gentleman laughed.

"All the more necessary why we should settle the question at once. If
it is smallpox the child would be quarantined with you--that would be
unfortunate. You don't appear to have a rash, however."

"It hasn't got up to my face yet," explained Harvey, feebly. "You
ought to see my body. It's----"

"I've had it," announced the young man, glibly; "so I'm immune." He
winked.

"What do you want?" demanded Harvey, bracing himself for the worst.
"Out with it. Let's see your star."

"Oh, I'm not a cop. I'm a lawyer."

The other swallowed noisily.

"A lawyer?"

"We represent Miss Duluth. I'll get down to tacks right away, if
you'll permit me to sit down." He took a chair.

"Tacks?" queried Harvey, a retrospective grin appearing on his lips.
"Gee! I wish I'd thought to put a couple----But, excuse me, I can't
talk without my lawyer being present."

The visitor stared. "You--do you mean to say you have retained
counsel?"

"The best in New York," lied Harvey.

Buckley gave a sigh of relief. He knew a lie when he heard one.

"I'd suggest that you send the little girl out of the room. We can
talk better if we are alone."

After Phoebe's reluctant departure, the visitor bluntly asked Harvey
which he preferred, State's prison or an amicable adjustment without
dishonour.

"Neither," said Harvey, moistening his lips.

Thereupon Mr. Buckley calmly announced that his client, Miss Duluth,
was willing to forego the pleasure of putting him behind the bars on
condition that he surrendered at once the person of their child--their
joint child, he put it, so that Harvey might not be unnecessarily
confused--to be reared, educated, and sustained by her, without let or
hindrance, from that time forward, so on and so forth;