e it
to-night. I can write to you when it's over."

"Very well. Here are ten pounds for you; I will give you the other when
your work is done. But do not write to me; come to me at the Grosvenor
Hotel to-morrow morning. I shall stay the night in town!"

"Have you any idea who the man is?" said Sabina, as she received the
bottle and the ten-pound note from her visitor's hands.

"Yes, I have; but I may be wrong."

"That's not very likely, ma'am. You'd 'a' made a good detective, as I
always did think--you're so sharp."

"And I don't look it, as you said before. Perhaps I will tell you
to-morrow morning, Sabina. At present I am going to find out all that I
can about Miss Cynthia West. You did not give me her address; give it to
me now."

She wrote it down in a little pocket-book, and then rose to take her
leave. Sabina, who followed her to the cab, heard her tell the man to
drive to the box-office of the Frivolity Theatre.

It took Mrs. Vane three-quarters of an hour to reach the Frivolity. It
was half-past three when she got there. She asked at once if it was
possible to see the manager, Mr. Ferguson. A gold coin probably
expedited her messenger and rendered her entrance to the great man
possible; for Mrs. Vane was a very handsome and well-dressed woman, and
the "important business" on which she sent word that she had come had
possibly less influence on the manager's mind than the glowing account
given by the man despatched from the box-office on her errand.

Flossy was lucky. Mr. Ferguson was in the building--a rather unusual
fact; he was also willing to see her in his private room--another
concession; and he received her with moderate civility--a variation from
his usual manner, which Mrs. Vane must have owed to her own manner and
appearance.

"I shall not detain you for more than a very few minutes, Mr. Ferguson,"
said Flossy, with the air of a duchess, as she accepted the chair which
the manager offered her; "but I have a good reason for coming to you. I
think that a young lady called Cynthia West was once acting at this
theatre? To put my question in plain words--Do you know anything about
her?"

The manager sneered a little.

"A good deal," he said. "Oh, yes--she was here! I don't know that I have
anything to tell, however. I should think that Mr. Hubert Lepel, if you
know him, could tell you more about her than any one."

"I happen to be Mr. Lepel's sister," said Flossy, with dignity.

"The deuce yo