urope."

"I will!" Dundee accepted the suggestion gratefully, as if it had not
occurred to him. "But first I want you to come out to lunch with me. I'm
sure you know of some nice tearoom or roadhouse in the neighborhood."

During the luncheon, which Miss Earle devoured avidly, without its
interfering with her flow of reminiscences concerning the girls she
hated, Dundee was able to learn nothing more to the detriment of
Forsyte's Hamilton alumnae, but he did add considerably to his knowledge
and pity of female human nature.

It was nearly three o'clock when he presented his card, with a message
pencilled upon its back, to the aged doorkeeper who drowsed in the alley
which led to the stage entrance of the Warburton Theater, just off
Broadway near Times Square, and fifteen minutes later he was being
received in the star's dressing-room by Serena Hart herself.

"You're working on poor Nita's murder?" she began without preamble, as
she seated herself at her dressing-table and indicated a decrepit chair
for the detective. "I was wondering how much longer I could keep out of
it.... Of course you've been pumping that poor, foolish virgin--Gladys
Earle.... Why girls who look like that are always called _Gladys_--God!
I'm tired! We've been at it since ten this morning, but thank the Lord
we're through now for the day."

Dundee studied her with keen interest, and decided that, almost plain
though she was, she was even more magnetic than when seen from the
footlights.... Rather carelessly dressed, long brown hair rather
tousled, her face very pale and haggard without the make-up which would
give it radiance on Monday night, Serena Hart was nevertheless one of
the most attractive women Dundee had ever met--and one of the kindest,
he felt suddenly sure....

"When did I first meet Nita Leigh?" she repeated his question. "Let me
think--Oh, yes! The first year after I went on the stage--1917. We were
in the chorus together in 'Teasing Tilly'--a rotten show, by the way.
The other girls of the chorus were awfully snooty to me, because I was
that anathema, a 'society girl', but Nita was a darling. She showed me
the ropes, and we became quite intimate--around the theater only,
however, since my parents kept an awfully strict eye on me. The show was
a great hit--ran on into 1918, till February or March, I believe."

"Then do you know, Miss Hart, whether Nita got married during the
winter?" Dundee asked.

"Why, yes, she did!" Serena