to the detective--"you will call upon me some time to-morrow
you shall have it."

Mr. Rider smiled, for the unsophisticated suggestion amused him
immensely.

"I cannot lose sight of you, madame," he said, courteously. "What you
have said may be true; I shall be glad, on your account, if it proves so;
but my duty to others must be rigidly enforced, and so I am obliged to
arrest you."

"But _I_ cannot submit to an _arrest_; you surely do not mean that I--a
woman in _my_ position--am to be imprisoned on the charge of _theft_!"
exclaimed the woman, growing deadly white.

"The law is no respecter of persons or position, madame," laconically
responded the detective.

"What _can I_ do?" Mrs. Vanderheck cried, in a tone of despair.

"Rider, I am afraid you have made a mistake," the policeman now remarked,
in a low tone; "the woman is all right. I've acted as escort for her on
such occasions as these for the last two years."

The detective looked astonished and somewhat perplexed at this statement.

If Mrs. Vanderheck had led a respectable life in New York for two years,
and was as well known to this officer as he represented, he also began to
fear that he might have made a mistake.

"You are willing to defer the arrest if she can furnish ample security
for her appearance when wanted?" the policeman asked, after a moment of
thought.

"Ye-es; but responsible parties must vouch for her," Mr. Rider answered,
with some hesitation.

The woman seized the suggestion with avidity.

"Oh, then, I have a dozen friends who will serve me," she cried, eagerly.
"Come back to the ball-room with me and you shall have security to any
amount." and with a haughty air she turned back and entered the
brilliantly lighted building which she had recently left.

The policeman conducted them into a small reception-room, and Mrs.
Vanderheck sent her card, with a few lines penciled on it, to a
well-known banker, who was among the guests in the ball-room, requesting
a few moments' personal conversation with him.

The gentleman soon made his appearance, and was greatly astonished and no
less indignant upon being informed of what had occurred.

But he readily understood that the matter in hand must be legally settled
before the lady could be fully acquitted. He therefore unhesitatingly
gave security for her to the amount required by the detective, but
politely refused to receive, as a guarantee of her integrity, the costly
ornaments which M