wind that snuffed out
any love-lights that might have been kindling. She stood with her back to
the table, twisting Harold Phipps's card in her fingers, and she looked
at Quin suspiciously.

"Did grandmother send you up here to see if I was keeping my word?"

"She did not. She doesn't know I am here."

"Then it's just _you_ who don't trust me?"

"Well, I don't think you are playing quite fair," admitted Quin bluntly,
"either to Queen Vic or to me."

"And I suppose you propose to go back and tell her so?"

"I propose nothing of the kind. It's up to you whether we both keep our
word, or whether we both break it. You know what I think, and you see the
position I am in."

"I can settle that," said Eleanor with spirit. "I can write home to-night
and tell them what I intend to do. That will exonerate you, if that is
what you are after."

"It _isn't_ what I am after, and you know it! For God's sake, Miss Nell,
be fair! You know you can't go on with this thing without starting up the
old trouble with Mr. Phipps."

"But, I tell you, I _can_. I can control the situation perfectly. Why
can't you trust me, Quin?"

"I don't trust _him_. He's got ways of compromising a girl that you don't
know anything about. If he ever gets wind of your going to Chicago----"

"I wish you wouldn't throw that up to me!" There was real anger in her
voice, which up to now had shown signs of softening. "Just because I
happened to me a fool once, it doesn't follow that I'll be one again! It
won't be pleasant for me, but I am not going to let his connection with
'Phantom Love' spoil my chance of a lifetime."

"And he will be at all the rehearsals, I suppose, and up here in the
apartment between-times." Quin's jealousy ran through him like fire
through dry stubble. "You'll probably be seeing him every day."

"And what if I do?" demanded Eleanor. "I have told you our relations are
strictly professional."

"That card looks like it," said Quin bitterly.

Eleanor tossed the object referred to in the trash-basket and looked at
him defiantly. The very weakness of her position made her peculiarly
sensitive to criticism, and the fact that her mentor was her one-time
slave augmented her wrath.

"See here, Miss Nell." Quin came a step closer, and his voice was husky
with emotion. "I know how keen you are about the stage; but, take it from
me, you are making a wrong start. If you'll just promise to wait until
your time is up----"

"I won't promis