large might think. So she went back to
the office at one o'clock and took up her work. Long before evening
she sensed that others had read the _Gazette_. Not that any one
mentioned it, but sundry curious glances made her painfully aware of
the fact.

Mrs. Stout evidently was on the watch, for she appeared in the hall
almost as the front door closed behind Hazel.

"How de do, Miss Weir?" she greeted. "My, but you fell into quite a
bit of a fortune, ain't you?"

"I only know what the papers say," Hazel returned coldly.

"Just fancy! You didn't know nothing about it?" Mrs. Stout regarded
her with frank curiosity. "There's been two or three gentlemen from
the papers 'ere to-day awskin' for you. Such terrible fellows to quiz
one, they are."

"Well?" Hazel filled in the pause.

"Oh, I just thought I'd tell you," Mrs. Stout observed, "that they got
precious little out o' _me_. I ain't the talkin' kind. I told 'em
nothink whatever, you may be sure."

"They're perfectly welcome to learn all that can be learned about me,"
Hazel returned quietly. "I don't like newspaper notoriety, but I can't
muzzle the papers, and it's easy for them to get my whole history if
they want it."

She was on the stairs when she finished speaking. She had just reached
the first landing when she heard the telephone bell, and a second or
two later the land-lady called:

"Oh, Miss Weir! Telephone."

Barrow's voice hailed her over the line.

"I'll be out by seven," said he. "We had better take a walk. We can't
talk in the parlor; there'll probably be a lot of old tabbies there out
of sheer curiosity."

"All right," Hazel agreed, and hung up. There were one or two
questions she would have liked to ask, but she knew that eager ears
were close by, taking in every word. Anyway, it was better to wait
until she saw him.

She dressed herself. Unconsciously the truly feminine asserted its
dominance--the woman anxious to please and propitiate her lover. She
put on a dainty summer dross, rearranged her hair, powdered away all
trace of the tears that insisted on coming as soon as she reached the
sanctuary of her own room. And then she watched for Jack from a window
that commanded the street. She had eaten nothing since morning, and
the dinner bell rang unheeded. It did not occur to her that she was
hungry; her brain was engrossed with other matters more important by
far than food.

Barrow appeared at last. She went down to me