g it here. He is too suspicious.'

"But this was asking more than I was willing to grant. Seeing how I
felt, she took the paper back and concealed it in her bosom with a look
I had rather not have seen. 'You will not charge yourself with such a
responsibility,' said she. 'But I can trust you not to tell him?'

"'Yes,' I nodded, feeling sick of the whole business.

"'Then----' But here the door was violently flung open and Mr.
L'Hommedieu burst into the room in a state of as much excitement as his
wife, only his was the excitement of desperation.

"'Gone! Gone!' he cried, ignoring me as completely as Mr. Lafarge had
done. 'Not a dollar left; not even my studs! See!' And he pointed to his
shirt-front hanging apart in a way I would never have looked for in this
reckless but fastidious gentleman. 'Yet if I had had a dollar more or
even a ring worth a dollar or so, I might have----Theresa, have you any
money at all? A coin now might save us.'

"Mrs. L'Hommedieu, who had turned alarmingly pale, drew up her fine
figure and resolutely confronted him. 'No!' said she, and shifting her
gaze she turned it meaningly upon me.

"He misunderstood this movement. Thinking it simply a reminder of my
presence, he turned, with his false but impressive show of courtesy, and
made me a low bow. Then he forgot me utterly again, and, facing his
wife, growled out:

"'Where are you going to get breakfast then? You don't look like a woman
who expects to starve!'

"It was a fatal remark, for, do what she would, she could not prevent a
slight smile of disdain, and, seeing it, he kept his eye riveted on her
face till her uneasiness became manifest. Instantly his suspicion took
form, and, surveying her still more fixedly, he espied a corner of the
precious envelope protruding slightly above her corsage. To snatch it
out, open it, and realise its value was the work of a moment. Her cry of
dismay and his shout of triumph rang out simultaneously, and never have
I seen such an ebullition of opposing passions as I was made witness to
as his hand closed over this small fortune and their staring eyes met in
the moral struggle they had now entered upon for its ultimate
possession.

"She was the first to speak. 'It was given to me, it was meant for me.
If I keep it both of us will profit by it, but if you----'

"He did not wait for her to finish. 'Where did you get it?' he cried. 'I
can break the bank with what I can raise on this bond at the club.