lings.

"Give me a lot of your cards," he said.

"What for?"

"For Mr. Millard."

"I don't see what use he can make of them," said Mrs. Hilbrough, slowly
opening her card-case.

"He'll know," said Hilbrough. "He can work a visiting-card in more ways
than any other man in New York." Hilbrough took half a dozen of his
wife's cards and carried them into the bank.

"Use these as you see fit," he said to Millard, "and if you need a dozen
or two more let me know."

Under other circumstances Millard would have been amused, this liberal
overdoing was so characteristic of Hilbrough. But he only took the cards
with thanks, reflecting that there might be some opportunity to use
them.

As he would be detained at the bank until near four o'clock, his first
impulse was to call a district messenger and dispatch Mrs. Hilbrough's
card of inquiry at once. But he reflected that the illness might be a
long one, and that his measures should be taken with reference to his
future conduct. On his way home from the bank he settled the manner of
his procedure. The Callender family, outside of Phillida at most, did
not know his man Robert. By sending the discreet Robert systematically
with messages in Mrs. Hilbrough's name, those who attended the door
would come to regard him as the Hilbrough messenger.

It was about five o'clock when Robert, under careful instructions,
presented Mrs. Hilbrough's card at the Callender door. Unfortunately for
Millard's plan, Mrs. Callender, despite Robert's hint that a verbal
message would be sufficient, wrote her reply. When the note came into
Millard's hands he did not know what to do. His commission did not
extend to opening a missive addressed to Mrs. Hilbrough. The first
impulse was to dispatch Robert with the note to Mrs. Hilbrough. Then
Millard remembered Mr. Hilbrough's apprehension of diphtheria, and that
Robert had come from the infected house. He would send Mrs. Callender's
note by a messenger. But, on second thought, the note would be a more
deadly missile in Hilbrough's eyes than Robert, who had not gone beyond
the vestibule of the Callender house. He therefore sent a note by a
messenger, stating the case, and received in return permission to open
all letters addressed to Mrs. Hilbrough which his man might bring away
from the Callenders'. This scheme, by which Millard personated Mrs.
Hilbrough, had so much the air of a romantic intrigue of the harmless
variety that it fascinated Mrs. Hilbr