y not tell all this to Freddy Treving?" she asked.

The lines about his mouth tightened.

"Treving," he said with an affectation of simplicity, "came into the
club while I was talking with Ross. He had been drinking--a great deal.
I didn't realize it at first--it's quite necessary you should hear
this--so I took him out in the hall and tried to talk to him reasonably.
I told him it must stop--any friendship between him and you."

She glanced up tempestuously.

"I'll not have my friendships questioned."

"I'm sorry, Bella. You've placed this one beyond your own control. You
made me speak to Treving. It was the only thing to do. And he was
impertinent, defiant. As I told you, he had been drinking, but that
didn't explain his astounding assurance. I don't want to do you an
injustice, but I couldn't help fearing his confidence was based on an
understanding with you."

"John! You're mad!"

"No. I think it's Treving who's a little mad as well as drunk."

He studied her face morosely.

"I told him, if I heard of his coming near you again or communicating
with you in any way, I would thrash him within an inch of his life.
Bella, he laughed at me."

His eyes left hers. A look of utter discouragement entered them. He
spoke slowly, with unnatural distinctness.

"Treving offered to lay me any stakes he'd spend this evening with you
without my knowing."

His eyes remained averted. Perhaps he didn't dare risk the vital
testimony hers might have yielded.

Her voice was sharp.

"Treving said that?"

He nodded.

"But I don't think he'll succeed. And I warned him as he deserved. You
may as well make up your mind, Bella, that that incident is finished."

"On the contrary," she answered, "it's only begun."

He swung around and bent over her, grasping her shoulders, shaking her
slightly.

"Unless, Bella--unless--"

His hands tightened until she cried out.

"That's why, when I saw the house dark, I was afraid you'd gone. Did you
and he know about old Mrs. Hanson? Have you any arrangement with him for
to-night?"

She pressed her lips together. Blood congested her cheeks.

He shook her more determinedly.

"Answer. You have to answer that."

Her lips parted.

"Take your hands away."

"Bella! You can't keep quiet. See how you're racking me! Answer."

Somewhere in the house a bell commenced to jangle, and continued,
irritatingly, insistently.

She grasped his wrists and pushed his hands aside.

"You've go