fool!"

Five more minutes passed in a silent conflict. A knock announced the
return of the maid; and the girl reentered, placing upon the table a
visiting-card:--

DENISE RYLAND

ATELIER 4, RUE DU COQ D'OR,

MONTMARTRE,

PARIS.

Helen Cumberly started to her feet with a stifled exclamation and turned
to the maid; her face, to which the color slowly had been returning,
suddenly blanched anew.

"Denise Ryland!" she muttered, still holding the card in her hand,
"why--that's Mrs. Leroux's friend, with whom she had been staying in
Paris! Whatever can it mean?"

"Shall I show her in here, please?" asked the maid.

"Yes, in here," replied Helen, absently; and, scarcely aware that she
had given instructions to that effect, she presently found herself
confronted by the lady of the boat-train!

"Miss Cumberly?" said the new arrival in a pleasant American voice.

"Yes--I am Helen Cumberly. Oh! I am so glad to know you at last! I have
often pictured you; for Mira--Mrs. Leroux--is always talking about you,
and about the glorious times you have together! I have sometimes longed
to join you in beautiful Paris. How good of you to come back with her!"

Miss Ryland unrolled the Scotch muffler from her throat, swinging her
head from side to side in a sort of spuriously truculent manner, quite
peculiarly her own. Her keen hazel eyes were fixed upon the face of the
girl before her. Instinctively and immediately she liked Helen Cumberly;
and Helen felt that this strong-looking, vaguely masculine woman, was an
old, intimate friend, although she had never before set eyes upon her.

"H'm!" said Miss Ryland. "I have come from Paris"--she punctuated many
of her sentences with wags of the head as if carefully weighing her
words--"especially" (pause) "to see you" (pause and wag of head) "I am
glad... to find that... you are the thoroughly sensible... kind of
girl that I... had imagined, from the accounts which... I have had of
you."...

She seated herself in an armchair.

"Had of me from Mira?" asked Helen.

"Yes... from Mrs. Leroux."

"How delightful it must be for you to have her with you so often!
Marriage, as a rule, puts an end to that particular sort of good-time,
doesn't it?"

"It does... very properly... too. No MAN... no MAN in his ... right
senses... would permit... his wife... to gad about in Paris with
another... girl" (she presumably referred to herself) "whom HE had only
met... casually... and did not like