n, anew, she displayed a serious agitation
over the thought of any possible publicity in this affair.

"Oh, please, don't tell any one," she begged prettily. The blue eyes
were very imploring, beguiling, too. The timid smile that wreathed the
tiny mouth was marvelously winning. The neatly gloved little hands were
held outstretched, clasped in supplication. "Surely, sir, you see now
quite plainly why it must never be known by any one in all the wide,
wide world that I have ever been brought to this perfectly dreadful
place--though you have been quite nice!" Her voice dropped to a note
of musical prayerfulness. The words were spoken very softly and very
slowly, with intonations difficult for a man to deny. "Please let me go
home." She plucked a minute handkerchief from her handbag, put it to her
eyes, and began to sob quietly.

The burly Inspector of Police was moved to quick sympathy. Really, when
all was said and done, it was a shame that one like her should by some
freak of fate have become involved in the sordid, vicious things that
his profession made it obligatory on him to investigate. There was a
considerable hint of the paternal in his air as he made an attempt to
offer consolation to the afflicted damsel.

"That's all right, little lady," he exclaimed cheerfully. "Now, don't
you be worried--not a little bit. Take it from me, Miss West.... Just go
ahead, and tell me all you know about this Turner woman. Did you see her
yesterday?"

The girl's sobs ceased. After a final dab with the minute handkerchief,
she leaned forward a little toward the Inspector, and proceeded to put a
question to him with great eagerness.

"Will you let me go home as soon as I've told you the teensy little I
know?"

"Yes," Burke agreed promptly, with an encouraging smile. And for a good
measure of reassurance, he added as one might to an alarmed child: "No
one is going to hurt you, young lady."

"Well, then, you see, it was this way," began the brisk explanation.
"Mr. Gilder was calling on me one afternoon, and he said to me then that
he knew a very charming young woman, who----"

Here the speech ended abruptly, and once again the handkerchief was
brought into play as the sobbing broke forth with increased violence.
Presently, the girl's voice rose in a wail.

"Oh, this is dreadful--dreadful!" In the final word, the wail broke to a
moan.

Burke felt himself vaguely guilty as the cause of such suffering on the
part of one so you