, found few takers at par when Change closed. There has
been a considerable speculative movement in the stock, and the
speculators are beginning to wonder if there is a screw loose in the
company affairs.

Wagstaff's case will come up to-morrow forenoon. A charge of
disturbing the peace was placed against him. He gave a cash bond and
was at once released. When the hearing comes some of the parties to
the affair may perchance divulge what lay at the bottom of the row.

Any fine within the power of the court to impose is a mere bagatelle,
compared to the distinction of scientifically man-handling four of
society's finest in one afternoon. As one bystander remarked in the
classic phraseology of the street:

"Wagstaff's a bear!"

The brokers concerned might consider this to have a double meaning.

Hazel dropped the paper, mortified and wrathful. The city jail seemed
the very Pit itself to her. And the lurid publicity, the lifted
eyebrows of her friends, maddened her in prospect. Plain street
brawling, such as one might expect from a cabman or a taxi mahout, not
from a man like her husband. She involuntarily assigned the blame to
him. Not for the cause--the cause was of no importance whatever to
her--but for the act itself. Their best friends! She could hardly
realize it. Jimmie Brooks, jovial Jimmie, with a broken nose and
sundry bruises! And Paul Lorimer, distinguished Paul, who had the
courtly bearing which was the despair of his fellows, and the manner of
a dozen generations of culture wherewith to charm the women of his
acquaintance. He with a black eye and a split lip! So the paper
stated. It was vulgar. Brutal! The act of a cave man.

She was on the verge of tears.

And just at that moment the door opened, and in walked Bill.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE NOTE DISCORDANT

Bill had divested himself of the scowl. He smiled as a man who has
solved some knotty problem to his entire satisfaction. Moreover, he
bore no mark of conflict, none of the conventional scars of a
rough-and-tumble fight. His clothing was in perfect order, his tie and
collar properly arranged, as a gentleman's tie and collar should be.
For a moment Hazel found herself believing the _Herald_ story a pure
canard. But as he walked across the room her searching gaze discovered
that the knuckles of both his hands were bruised and bloody, the skin
broken. She picked up the paper.

"Is this true?" she asked tremulously, poi