e of Bella a couple of
years ago," he said despondently. "Did it myself."

But Dal said he remembered the miniature, and it looked more like me
than Bella, anyhow. So we were just where we started. And down inside of
me I had a premonition that I was going to do just what they wanted
me to do, and get into all sorts of trouble, and not be thanked for it
after all. Which was entirely correct. And then Leila Mercer came and
banged at the door and said that dinner had been announced ages ago and
that everybody was famishing. With the hurry and stress, and poor Jim's
distracted face, I weakened.

"I feel like a cross between an idiot and a criminal," I said shortly,
"and I don't know particularly why every one thinks I should be the
victim for the sacrifice. But if you will promise to get her off early
to her train, and if you will stand by me and not leave me alone with
her, I--I might try it."

"Of course, we'll stand by you!" they said in chorus. "We won't let you
stick!" And Dal said, "You're the right sort of girl, Kit. And after
it's all over, you'll realize that it's the biggest kind of lark. Think
how you are saving the old lady's feeling! When you are an elderly
person yourself, Kit, you will appreciate what you are doing tonight."

Yes, they said they would stand by me, and that I was a heroine and the
only person there clever enough to act the part, and that they wouldn't
let me stick! I am not bitter now, but that is what they promised. Oh, I
am not defending myself; I suppose I deserved everything that happened.
But they told me that she would be there only between trains, and that
she was deaf, and that I had an opportunity to save a fellow-being from
ruin. So in the end I capitulated.

When they opened the door into the living room, Max Reed had arrived and
was helping to hide a decanter and glasses, and somebody said a cab was
at the door.

And that was the way it began.

Chapter III. I MIGHT HAVE KNOWN IT

The minute I had consented I regretted it. After all, what were Jimmy's
troubles to me? Why should I help him impose on an unsuspecting elderly
woman? And it was only putting off discovery anyhow. Sooner or later,
she would learn of the divorce, and--Just at that instant my eyes fell
on Mr. Harbison--Tom Harbison, as Anne called him. He was looking on
with an amused, half-puzzled smile, while people were rushing around
hiding the roulette wheel and things of which Miss Caruthers might
disapp