e scandal. I--"

"And the Odell-Carneys too. Heavens!"

"It _must_ be stopped! I shall go at once to Mrs. Odell-Carney and tell
her what we have discovered. It will prepare her. She is the best friend
I have, and I know she will suggest a way to put a stop to this thing
before it is too late. We must--"

"Why don't you speak to father about it first?"

"Your father! My dear, what would be the use? He wouldn't believe it. He
never does. I wonder if dear Mrs. Odell-Carney is in her room." The
estimable lady fluttered loosely toward the door. Her daughter called to
her.

"If I were you, I'd wait a day or two, mamma." She was quite cool and
very calculating now. "It may adjust itself, and--and if we can just
drop a hint that we suspect, they won't be so--so--well, so public about
it. I _know_--I just _know_ that Freddie will be disgusted with her if
he sees how she's carrying on." Katherine suddenly had realised that
good might spring from evil, after all.

In the mean time, young Mr. Ulstervelt was having troubles and
disappointments of his own. Persistent effort to make love to Miss
Fowler had finally resulted in an almost peremptory command to desist.
An unlucky impulse to hold her hand during one of his attempts to "try
her out" met with disaster. Miss Fowler snatched her hand away and, with
a look he never forgot, abruptly left him. "It's all off with her,"
ruminated Freddie, shivering slightly as an after effect of the icy
stare she had given him. "She's got it in for me, for some reason or
other. Wow! That was a frost! I feel it yet. Medcroft has played the
deuce helping me. I wonder if-- Hello! There's Katherine."

Freddie did some rapid-fire thinking in the next half-minute, with the
result that Constance Fowler was banished forever from his calculations
and Katherine Rodney restored to her own. So long as he could not
possibly win Constance he figured that he might just as well devote
himself to the girl he was virtually engaged to marry. Freddie's was a
convenient and adaptable constancy. Miss Fowler out of sight was also
out of mind; he descended upon Katherine with all of the old ardour
shining in his eyes. It was soon after Miss Rodney's conference with her
mother, and the young lady was off for a walk in the town.

"Hello, Katherine," called he, coming up from behind. "Shopping? Take me
along to carry the bundles. I want to begin now."

It was Miss Rodney's fancy to receive his advances with disdain