eak discomfort of a
prison cell, and not even the sight of the girl who came through the
door to greet him brought him a qualm.

"You want to see my father, colonel?" she asked.

Her tone was cold but polite. The colonel had never been a great
favourite of Maisie White's, and now it required a considerable effort
on her part to hide her deep aversion.

"Do I want to see your father?" said Colonel Boundary. "Why, yes, I
think I do and I want to see you too, and I'd just as soon see you
first, before I speak to Solly."

She sat down, a model of patient politeness, her hands folded on her
lap. In the light of day she was pretty, straight of back, graceful as
to figure and the clear grey eyes which met his faded blue, were very
understanding.

"Miss White," he said, "we have been very good to you."

"We?" repeated the girl.

"We," nodded the colonel. "I speak for myself and my business
associates. If Solomon had ever told you the truth you would know that
you owe all your education, your beautiful home," he waved his hand, "to
myself and my business associates." His tongue rolled round the last two
words. They were favourites of his.

She nodded her head slightly.

"I was under the impression that I owed it to my father," she said, with
a hint of irony in her voice, "for I suppose that he earned all he has."

"You suppose that he earned all that he has?" repeated the colonel.
"Well, very likely you are right. He has earned more than he has got but
pay-day is near at hand."

There was no mistaking the menace in his tone, but the girl made no
comment. She knew that there had been trouble. She knew that her father
had for days been locked in his study and had scarcely spoken a word to
anybody.

"I saw you the other night," said the colonel, changing the direction
of his attack. "I saw you at the Orpheum. Pinto Silva came with me. We
were in the stage box."

"I saw you," said the girl quietly.

"A very good performance, considering you're a kid," said Boundary; "in
fact, Pinto says you're the best mimic he has ever seen on the
stage----" He paused--"Pinto got you your contracts."

She nodded.

"I am very grateful to Mr. Silva," she said.

"You have all the world before you, my girl," said Boundary in his slow,
ponderous way, "a beautiful and bright future, plenty of money, pearls,
diamonds," he waved his hand with a vague gesture, "and Pinto, who is
the most valuable of my business associates, is very fon