en the ball took place neither Owen nor Toni contributed by their
presence to the success of the evening.

It was perfectly true that Toni had struck up a friendship with Jim
Herrick's wife; and it is only fair to Toni to state that in the first
instance she had made overtures to Eva Herrick from a purely
good-hearted desire to return Herrick's kindness to her in the one way
possible.

She was not, in truth, greatly attracted to Eva at first. She found her
hard, bitter, at times ungenerous; but Mrs. Herrick was clever enough to
see that such attributes failed to endear her to Toni; and since to
Eva's perverted mind her husband's companionship was unendurable, she
quickly determined to make a friend of this soft-hearted, unworldly
little girl who was evidently sorry for her in her wordless fashion; and
was too candid herself to suspect deceit or double-dealing in others.

Eva knew very well that the neighbourhood, which prided itself on its
exclusiveness, would have little or nothing to do with her; and motor
rides with Toni in the luxurious grey car, with lunch or tea at some
riverside hotel, formed an agreeable method of passing the days which
were otherwise horribly long and empty.

* * * * *

"I wasn't thinking of the Golf Ball," Owen said, in reply to Toni's last
speech. "But honestly, Toni, I don't care for Mrs. Herrick. Oh, I'm not
talking now of the necklace affair. That's over and done with; but it's
the woman herself I don't approve of."

"Why not?" She spoke abruptly and Owen frowned.

"Well, she's not the sort of girl I like my wife to be intimate with.
I'm sorry for that poor fellow Herrick. He is a sensible man, and knows
that if his wife's past is to be forgotten it will be by living quietly
and decently, and not by pushing into the society of the neighbourhood
whether she is welcome or no."

"Owen, you're perfectly hateful." Toni was really angry. "She is always
welcome here, anyway. You know quite well that no one round about really
likes me. Oh, they call and all that sort of thing; but no one is really
friendly to me, and all the time they are saying horrid things about me
behind my back."

"I think you are talking nonsense, dear," said Owen quietly. "No one
says horrid things. To begin with, what should they say?"

"They say I'm common and ignorant, and so I am," said Toni passionately,
with a sudden desire to blurt out the conversation she had overheard on
t