ps in. Bess was there before the servant
had taken Storri's hat. This disturbing fortune depressed him; he
attributed it to ill luck, never once observing that the instant he
appeared, Dorothy's black maid skipped across to summon Bess.

"Really, Bess," pleaded Dorothy, following Storri's fourth call--she had
gone to the Marklins' just after her admirer left--"really, Bess, if you
love me, rescue me. There was never such a bore! Positively, the
creature will send me to my grave! And, besides,"--with a little
shiver,--"I have a horror of the man!"

And so the good Bess came each time, and faithfully refused to budge for
the whole of Storri's visit. With that, the latter saw less and less
reason to confer with Mr. Harley of an afternoon; also he resolved upon
a change of tactics in his siege of Dorothy.

Thus far Storri had failed, and the failure set him on fire. The savage
in him was stirred. His vanity found itself defied; and the onyx eyes
would burn, and the mustaches twist like snakes, as he reflected on how
he had been foiled and put aside. Had he known that Richard was in
Dorothy's thought, that it was he to hold her heart against him, Storri
would have choked. But he had gathered no such knowledge; nor was he
posted as to those morning love trysts at which Senator Hanway
unconsciously presided.

Storri still visited the Harley house, but his visits were now to Mrs.
Hanway-Harley. And he would pour compliments for that shallow lady,
which said compliments our shallow one drank in like water from the
well. Mrs. Hanway-Harley had never known a more finished gentleman; and
so she told her friends.

"It is a pity," cried Storri one day, "that Europe has none such as
yourself to set examples of refinement! Now if your beautiful daughter
would but make some nobleman happy as his wife! You would come to
Europe, no?" and Storri spread his hands in rapture over so much
possible good fortune. "Yes, if your lovely daughter would but
condescend!" Storri paused, and sighed a sigh of power.

Mrs. Hanway-Harley thought this exceeding fine; the treacle of coarse
compliment sweetened it to her lips. Some would have laughed at such
fustian. Mrs. Hanway-Harley was none of these; the compliment she
laughed at must emanate from someone not a Count. None the less, she
could see that something was at the back of it all. There was Storri's
sigh as though a heart had broken. Had Storri made some soft advance,
and had Dorothy repuls