n?" she asked, as she approached her home.
Had the interview continued with the dramatic intensity of its
beginning, she could safely have left him to ask that question. Under
the circumstances she did not dare.

"I'm not quite sure. I have some business that has hung fire an
unconscionable time, and ungallant as it seems, we twentieth century
fellows have to put business before pleasure." He smiled
propitiatingly and therein lay the sting, that he did not even take the
trouble to conceal that he was trying to appease her. Their parting
sank to the level of the commonplace for he shook hands hastily, and
her look of appeal flattened itself ineffectively against his
preoccupation.

A little skilful quizzing of the hotel clerk confirmed in every detail
Annabel's remarkable story, and in his own room Justin sat down to
think the matter through to a conclusion. The renewal of his
acquaintance with Persis Dale nearly a year earlier had enlightened him
as to the tenacity of certain impressions he had thought obliterated
long before. The girl he had loved in his callow youth and had
forgotten, still retained something of her old fascination for him. A
year earlier this discovery was responsible for an amused wonder at
himself, coupled with a realization of the need of caution. Now common
sense took sides with his lingering fondness. Persis Dale, with a
comfortable little fortune added to her unique personality, had become
distinctly desirable. She was a woman with an infinite capacity for
surprises, which meant that she would not bore the man she married,
unduly. With a little metropolitan polish added to her native
cleverness she should be able to give a good account of herself
socially. The children were a drawback of course, but there must be
some way of getting rid of an adopted family of which one tired. And
it was quite impossible that Persis' fondness for the little ones she
had picked up the other day, so to speak, would prove a serious rival
to an affection which had been a vital factor in her life for more than
twenty years.

By supper-time he had made up his mind. With a little sigh for the
freedom he was relinquishing, he resolved on matrimony. He had always
intended to marry somebody and domesticity with Persis promised at
least commonplace comfort, something Justin was the last man on earth
to despise. With the children disposed of, Joel sent adrift and
Persis' money wisely handled, there was