--But the gods have decreed
it differently and have taken the matter into their own hands. Ah, well!
But I shall hear again from you to-day; and you will hear from me."

CHAPTER XVII

Hayden was half ill when he left Ydo's apartment. He felt a curious
stifling sensation, a longing for air and motion and so strong was this
feeling that he decided to dismiss the motor and walk home; but he had
proceeded only a block or so, when he noticed an electric brougham draw
up to the sidewalk. His heart gave a quick throb for he saw that Marcia's
chauffeur was driving; but a moment later, his hopes were turned to
disappointment, for instead of Marcia's dear face, the somewhat worn and
worried countenance of her mother gazed out.

The moment she caught a glimpse of him, she brightened perceptibly and
with a quick motion summoned him. Almost mechanically he made his way
across the crowded sidewalk and took the hand she extended.

"Oh, Mr. Hayden," with a plaintive quaver in her voice, "won't you drive
about a little with me? I must talk to some one. I must have advice
and--and the sympathy that I know your generous heart will be only too
ready to give. It may be unconventional to ask you, and I may be taking
up far too much of your valuable time. You will tell me frankly if this
is so, will you not?"

Hayden murmured a polite protest, and expressed his appreciation of the
privilege in a few words, scarcely conscious of what he was saying, and
then sank into the seat beside her, inwardly lamenting his stupidity that
he had so impulsively dismissed his waiting taxicab.

"So unconventional!" again murmured the lady as he took his seat, "but
then, I am all impulse and intuition. As Mr. Oldham has so often said to
me, 'I would rather depend on your intuitions than on the reasoning of
the wisest statesmen.' Very, very absurd of him, and yet so dear and in
one sense, true."

"True in all senses," said Hayden with the gallantry expected of him.
This Venus Victrix was not so critical as to cavil at the manifest effort
in his tones. Let it be forced or spontaneous, a compliment was a
compliment to her.

"Mr. Hayden, Robert, if I may call you so, I am very, very unhappy this
morning, and--and I have no one, no one to console or comfort me."

Hayden felt a quick impulse of pity, for there was that in her speech and
appearance which convinced him that she really was fretting over
something, and he saw that under her careful powd