ew did not smile this time. Here was the whole matter in a
nutshell: she wanted something to do. And there were thousands of
others just like her. Man-like, he forgot that women needed something
more than money and attention from an army of servants. He had his
offices, his stock-ticker, his warfare. Not because she wanted to
vote, but because she wanted and needed something to do.

"Molly, old girl, I begin to see. I'm going to finance a home-bureau
of charity. I mean it. Fifty thousand the year to do with as you
like. No hospitals, churches, heathen; but the needy and deserving
near by. You can send boys to college and girls to schools; and
Kitty'll be glad to be your lieutenant. I never had a college
education. Not that I ever needed it,"--with sudden truculence in his
tone. "But it might be a good thing for some of the rising generations
in my tenements. I'll leave the choice to you. And when it comes to
voting, why, tell me which way to vote, and I'll do it. I'll be a bull
moose, if you say so."

"You're the kindest man in the world, Dan, and I'm an old fool of a
woman!"

Kitty burst into the room, star-eyed, pale. "Mother!" She sped to her
mother's side. "Oh, I felt it in my bones that something was going to
happen!"

"Think of it, Kitty dear; your mother, fighting with a policeman! Oh,
it was frightful!"

"Never mind, mumsy," Kitty soothed. She rang for the maid, a thing her
father had not thought to do. And when her mother was snug in bed, her
head in cooling bandages, her face and hands bathed in refreshing
cologne, Kitty returned to her father, "Dad, you mustn't say a word to
mother about it, but I've been robbed."

"What?"

"My necklace. And I could not identify the thief if he stood before me
this very minute. The interior light was out of order. He entered,
pretending he had made a mistake. He called me Enid and told me to put
up my collar; touched my neck with his hands. I was so astonished that
I could not move. Finally I managed to explain that he had made a
mistake. He apologized and got out; and it is quite evident that the
necklace went with him."

"Can't you remember the least thing about him?"

"Nothing, absolutely nothing."

"Where were the Crawfords?"

"I did not wait to see them. My cab was ahead of theirs. What shall
we do?"

"Notify the police; it's all we can do. They cost me an even ten
thousand, Kitty. And I told you not to wear them on a nig