that it was the complaint which had fatally
undermined his own health; and in the laugh that followed the party
drifted into the great vaulted dining-room.

"Oh, I don't mind your laughing at me, Streffy darling," his hostess
retorted, pressing his arm against her own; and Susy, receiving the
shock of their rapidly exchanged glance, said to herself, with a sharp
twinge of apprehension: "Of course Streffy knows everything; he showed
no surprise at finding Ellie away when he arrived. And if he knows,
what's to prevent Nelson's finding out?" For Strefford, in a mood of
mischief, was no more to be trusted than a malicious child.

Susy instantly resolved to risk speaking to him, if need be even
betraying to him the secret of the letters. Only by revealing the depth
of her own danger could she hope to secure his silence.

On the balcony, late in the evening, while the others were listening
indoors to the low modulations of a young composer who had embroidered
his fancies on Browning's "Toccata," Susy found her chance. Strefford,
unsummoned, had followed her out, and stood silently smoking at her
side.

"You see, Streff--oh, why should you and I make mysteries to each
other?" she suddenly began.

"Why, indeed: but do we?"

Susy glanced back at the group around the piano. "About Ellie, I
mean--and Nelson."

"Lord! Ellie and Nelson? You call that a mystery? I should as soon apply
the term to one of the million candle-power advertisements that adorn
your native thoroughfares."

"Well, yes. But--" She stopped again. Had she not tacitly promised Ellie
not to speak?

"My Susan, what's wrong?" Strefford asked.

"I don't know...."

"Well, I do, then: you're afraid that, if Ellie and Nelson meet here,
she'll blurt out something--injudicious."

"Oh, she won't!" Susy cried with conviction.

"Well, then--who will! I trust that superhuman child not to. And you and
I and Nick--"

"Oh," she gasped, interrupting him, "that's just it. Nick doesn't
know... doesn't even suspect. And if he did...."

Strefford flung away his cigar and turned to scrutinize her. "I don't
see--hanged if I do. What business is it of any of us, after all?"

That, of course, was the old view that cloaked connivance in an air of
decency. But to Susy it no longer carried conviction, and she hesitated.

"If Nick should find out that I know...."

"Good Lord--doesn't he know that you know? After all, I suppose it's not
the first time--"

She remain