. What then? What's
to become of her?"

"I don't know," said Thorpe dully. "I don't know."

"She will be practically penniless, Brady. Her mother will not help her.
God, how Mrs. Tresslyn will rage when she hears of this! Lordy, Lordy!"

Thorpe leaned back in the chair and covered his eyes with his hands. For a
long time he sat thus, scarcely breathing. Simmy watched him in
perplexity.

"It would be awful to see Anne Tresslyn penniless," said the little man
finally, a queer break in his voice. "She's a fair fighter, my boy. She
doesn't whimper. She made her mistake and she's willing to pay. One
couldn't ask more than that of any one. It means a good deal for her to
chuck all this money. I don't want her to do it. I'm fond of her, Brady.
I, for one, can't bear the thought of her going about in rummy old clothes
and--well, that's just what it will come to--unless she marries some one
else."

The hands fell from Thorpe's eyes suddenly. "She will not marry any one
else," he exclaimed. "What do you mean? What have you heard? Is there--"

"My Lord, you don't expect the poor girl to remain single all the rest of
her life just to please you, do you?" roared Simmy, springing to his feet.
"You must not forget that she is young and very beautiful and she'll
probably be very poor. And God knows there are plenty of us who would like
to marry her!" He took a turn or two up and down the room and then stopped
before Thorpe, in whose eyes there was a new and desperate anxiety, born
of alarm. "She wants me to arrange matters so that she can begin turning
over this money soon after she comes down in September. She hasn't touched
the principal. If she sticks to her intention, I'll have to do it. Here is
her letter. I'll read it to you. George and Lutie know everything, and she
is writing to her mother, she says. Not a word about you, however. Now,
listen to what she says, and--for God's sake, _do something_!"

CHAPTER XXX

Anne's strictest injunction to Simmy Dodge bore upon the anonymity of the
contributions to the various specified charities. Huge sums were to be
delivered at stated intervals, covering a period of six months. At the end
of that period she would have contributed the whole of her fortune to
charity and, through its agencies, to humanity. The only obligation
demanded in return from any of these organisations was a pledge of
secrecy, and from this pledge there was to be no release until such time
as the dono