man," continued Harcout soothingly, but edging as
far from the railing and his caller as possible, "he isn't in, and that
settles that. Further, you can't have, or see, him _or_ his money, and
that settles that. So you had best quietly go home like a good woman and
settle all this," concluded Harcout winningly and yet impressively, and
with the tone of a Christian counsellor.

The crowd laughed and jeered at this grave and sarcastic advice, and it
seemed to madden her. Raising her closed sunshade and hissing, "_I'll_
settle this!" she rushed towards Harcout, struck at him fiercely,
following up the attack with quick and terrific blows, which completely
demolished the parasol and drove him nimbly from place to place in his
efforts to avoid the effects of her wrath.

For the next few moments there was a small whirlwind in Lyon's offices.
The railing was too high for Mrs. Winslow to leap, or she certainly
would have scaled it. Harcout could not retreat but a certain distance,
or he certainly would have sought safety in flight. So the whirlwind was
created by rapid and savage leaps of Mrs. Winslow, as if to jump the
railing and fall bodily upon her victim, and at every bound the woman
made, the shattered parasol waved aloft and came down with keen
certainty and stinging swiftness, upon such portions of the gilt-edged
gentleman as could be most conveniently reached.

It is difficult to realize what the woman would have done in her mad
passion, had not a lucky circumstance occurred. She and Harcout had
never met since the time when, in the face of her robbery of him, she
had unblushingly compelled him to wed her to the credulous Dick Hosford
at the Michigan Exchange Hotel in Detroit; and had she now recognized
him as the villain who had made her what she was, it is a question
whether she would not have made a finish of him there and then. But some
one in the crowd raised the cry of "Police!" which sobered her at once,
and, giving the tattered remnant of her sunshade a wicked pitch into
Harcout's face, she turned quickly, shot into the Arcade as the crowd
made way for her and quickened her speed by wild jibes and taunts, until
she had reached the street, where, in a dazed, hunted sort of way, she
hailed a passing cab, sprang into it, and was driven rapidly away.

CHAPTER XXI.

Mrs. Winslow, under the Influence of "Spirits" of an earthly
Order, becomes romantic, religious, and poetical.-- A
Trance.-- D