sat down with him. I got close to him--as close as
I am to you now, Mrs. Winslow--and then, putting my right hand on his
knee, and my left hand on his shoulder----"

"Splendid!" interrupted Mrs. Winslow, pouring more wine for the
ingenuous Miss Gray, and taking some herself.

"Then," continued Miss Gray, laughing in a peculiarly wicked manner, "I
got my face pretty close to his and asked: 'Mr. Perkins, I want you to
give me an answer that you are willing to have made public. On your
honor as a man, do you not now believe in the genuineness of these
spiritual manifestations produced through me?' 'I do,' he said
passionately, throwing his arms around me, and--and I don't know what he
would have done had not Leveraux entered the room at that supreme
moment!"

[Illustration: _"Leveraux entered the room at that supreme moment."--_]

"Oh, _I_ see!" murmured the other blackmailer.

"Think of it, Mrs. Winslow!" added Miss Gray tauntingly; "think of it!
In the arms of a man who can draw his check for a million sterling--and
poor little me from Chardon, Ohio!"

"My! but you are a little rascal, though!" said Mrs. Winslow admiringly.
"I always knew you'd make an impression somewhere."

"'Leveraux!' said I indignantly, and springing from Perkins's embrace
after I had kissed him in a way that set him shaking again, 'if you ever
breathe a word of this, or annoy Mr. Perkins in any manner under heaven,
I'll kill you! Go!'

"Poor Leveraux knew her cue and replied hotly, 'I'd kill myself before
I'd do so disgraceful an act!' and then flounced out of the room."

"_What_ a pair!" exclaimed Mrs. Winslow.

"He thought I was just perfectly splendid after that; kept coming and
coming, indorsed me publicly, got wild over me; but I held him at arm's
length for months, until I thought the man would really go crazy; and
finally--well, you know I told you Daddy was an 'accommodation husband,'
and if he hadn't been one after I had tripped up one of the richest men
in all England, I would have just hired somebody to have dumped him into
the Thames, sure!"

The sparkling flow of Miss Gray's experience was here interrupted by
Mrs. Winslow's ordering another bottle of wine, and after the couple had
partaken of the same, the spicy narrative was continued:

"But now comes the fun, Winslow. I can't tell you _how_ my rope trick is
done. I've got a little addition to it that makes it a regular
sensation. It don't hurt me a particle, and allows