adly. Her stare said as plainly as words could
have done: "You lie! You _do_ know him!" But Gila's lips said,
scornfully, "Aren't you the poor girl whose kid brother got killed by an
automobile in the street?"

Across Bonnie's stricken face there flashed a spasm of pain and her very
lips grew white.

"I thought so!" sneered Gila, rushing on with her insult. "And yet you
deny that you ever heard Paul Courtland's name! He picked up the kid and
carried it in the house and ran errands for you, but you don't know him!
That's gratitude for you! I told him the working-class were all like
that. I have no doubt he has paid for this very room that you are lying
in!"

"Stop!" cried Bonnie, sitting up, her eyes like two stars, her face
white to the very lips. "You have no right to come here and talk like
that! I cannot understand who could have sent you! Certainly not the
courteous stranger who picked up my little brother. I do not know his
name, nor anything about him, but I can assure you that I shall not
allow him nor any one else to pay my bills. Now will you take your
things and leave my room? I am feeling very--tired!"

The voice suddenly trailed off into silence and Bonnie dropped back
limply upon the pillow.

The nurse sprang like an angry bear who has seen somebody troubling her
cubs. She touched vigorously a button in the wall as she passed and
swooped down upon the tawdry finery, stuffing it unceremoniously into
the box; then she turned upon the little fur-trimmed lady, placed a
capable arm about her slim waist, and scooped her out of the room.
Flinging the bulging box down at her feet, where it gaped widely,
gushing forth in pink, blue, cerise, and silver, she shut the door and
flew back to her charge.

Down the hall hurried the emergency doctor, formidable in his
white-linen uniform. When Gila looked up from the confusion at her feet
she encountered the gaze of a pair of grave and disapproving eyes behind
a pair of fascinating tortoise-shell goggles. She was not accustomed to
disapproval in masculine eyes and it infuriated her.

"What does all this mean?" His voice expressed a good many kinds of
disapproval.

"It means that I have been insulted, sir, by one of your nurses!"
declared Gila, in her most haughty tone, with a tilt of her chin and a
flirt of her fur trappings. "I shall make it my business to see that she
is removed at once from her position."

The doctor eyed her mildly, as though she were a smal