od so,
though I don't know much about that side of life myself.'

'It would be just one thing more to break his character if Cordova
would say something against him,' suggested Feist. 'Her popularity is
something tremendous, and people always believe a woman who says that
a man has insulted her. In those things the bare word of a pretty lady
who's no better than she should be is worth more than an honest man's
character for thirty years.'

'That's so,' said Bamberger, looking at him attentively. 'That's quite
true. Whatever you are, Feist, you're no fool. We may as well have the
pretty lady's bare word, anyway.'

'If you approve, I'm nearly sure I can get it,' Feist answered. 'At
least, I can get a statement which she won't deny if it's published
in the right way. I can furnish the materials for an article on her
that's sure to please her--born lady, never a word against her, highly
connected, unassailable private life, such a contrast to several other
celebrities on the stage, immensely charitable, half American, half
English--every bit of that all helps, you see--and then an anecdote or
two thrown in, and just the bare facts about her having had to escape
in a hurry from a prominent millionaire in a New York hotel--fairly
ran for her life and turned the key against him. Give his name if you
like. If he brings action for libel, you can subpoena Cordova herself.
She'll swear to it if it's true, and then you can unmask your big guns
and let him have it hot.'

'No doubt, no doubt. But how do you propose to find out if it is
true?'

'Well, I'll see; but it will answer almost as well if it's not true,'
said Feist cynically. 'People always believe those things.'

'It's only a detail,' said Bamberger, 'but it's worth something,
and if we can make this man Leven begin a suit against his wife,
everything that's against Van Torp will be against her too. That's not
justice, Feist, but it's fact. A woman gets considerably less pity for
making mistakes with a blackguard than for liking an honest man too
much, Feist.'

Mr. Bamberger, who had divorced his own wife, delivered these opinions
thoughtfully, and, though she had made no defence, he might be
supposed to know what he was talking about.

Presently he dismissed his visitor with final injunctions to lose no
time, and to 'find out' if Lady Maud was interested in any one besides
Van Torp, and if not, what was at the root of her eccentric hours.

Mr. Feist went away, a