g, or Sohlberg, either. They had gone to a reception. Nor was
she at the apartment on the North Side, where, under the name of
Jacobs, as Aileen had been informed by the detectives, she and
Cowperwood kept occasional tryst. Aileen hesitated for a moment,
feeling it useless to wait, then she ordered the coachman to drive to
her husband's office. It was now nearly five o'clock. Antoinette and
Cowperwood had both gone, but she did not know it. She changed her
mind, however, before she reached the office--for it was Rita Sohlberg
she wished to reach first--and ordered her coachman to drive back to
the Sohlberg studio. But still they had not returned. In a kind of
aimless rage she went home, wondering how she should reach Rita
Sohlberg first and alone. Then, to her savage delight, the game walked
into her bag. The Sohlbergs, returning home at six o'clock from some
reception farther out Michigan Avenue, had stopped, at the wish of
Harold, merely to pass the time of day with Mrs. Cowperwood. Rita was
exquisite in a pale-blue and lavender concoction, with silver braid
worked in here and there. Her gloves and shoes were pungent bits of
romance, her hat a dream of graceful lines. At the sight of her,
Aileen, who was still in the hall and had opened the door herself,
fairly burned to seize her by the throat and strike her; but she
restrained herself sufficiently to say, "Come in." She still had sense
enough and self-possession enough to conceal her wrath and to close the
door. Beside his wife Harold was standing, offensively smug and
inefficient in the fashionable frock-coat and silk hat of the time, a
restraining influence as yet. He was bowing and smiling:

"Oh." This sound was neither an "oh" nor an "ah," but a kind of Danish
inflected "awe," which was usually not unpleasing to hear. "How are
you, once more, Meeses Cowperwood? It eez sudge a pleasure to see you
again--awe."

"Won't you two just go in the reception-room a moment," said Aileen,
almost hoarsely. "I'll be right in. I want to get something." Then,
as an afterthought, she called very sweetly: "Oh, Mrs. Sohlberg, won't
you come up to my room for a moment? I have something I want to show
you."

Rita responded promptly. She always felt it incumbent upon her to be
very nice to Aileen.

"We have only a moment to stay," she replied, archly and sweetly, and
coming out in the hall, "but I'll come up."

Aileen stayed to see her go first, then followed u