ur sake,
Claire."

The girl was not naturally wicked; she had always had a great respect
for the high-bred, beautiful Faynie--her stepfather's daughter by his
first wife. There had been no discord between the two young girls.

Still, as her mother had said so emphatically, it was better that Faynie
should step out of that lovely home a beggar than that they should lose
it.

Claire quite agreed with her mother that Faynie must stay there for the
present at all hazards; it would arouse such an uproar if she were
thrust from that roof just then.

"If my father has expressed the desire that I shall stay here six
months, I--I shall do so, even though it breaks my heart," Faynie had
said.

She kept her own apartments, refusing to come down to her meals, and
Mrs. Fairfax humored this whim by ordering Faynie's meals served in her
rooms.

In vain the old housekeeper expostulated with Faynie, urging her to
come down at least to the drawing-room evenings, as she used to do.

Faynie shook her golden curls.

"It is no longer my home," she would say, with bitter sobs; "I am only
biding my time here--the six months that I am in duty bound to
remain--then I am going away--it does not matter where."

The old housekeeper had tried in vain to coax from the girl the story of
where she had been while away from home.

"That is my secret," Faynie would say, with a burst of bitter tears; "I
shall never divulge it--until the hour I lie dying."

CHAPTER XVII.

EVERY MAN TO HIS TRADE.

After the bogus Lester Armstrong had dispatched his letter of acceptance
to Mrs. Fairfax he braced himself for what would happen next by taking a
deep draught from the silver brandy flask which he kept in his breast
pocket, though he realized that he had need of all his senses for any
emergency.

During the next hour a score or more bookkeepers came to him with
bills, letters and papers of all descriptions. To one and all he said,
with a yawn, and very impatiently: "Leave what you have brought on my
desk; I'll look over it this afternoon."

Then it occurred to him that such a great concern must have a general
manager, and of course he would know something about the different
papers these people had brought for his inspection and for him to pass
upon, which were like so much Greek to him.

In answer to his summons, a tall, dignified, keen-eyed elderly man
responded--a man who struck considerable awe to Kendale's guilty heart.
He said t