. The temper men show toward men bears small
resemblance either in kind or in degree to the temper of jealous
passion they show toward the woman who baffles them or arouses their
suspicions; and no man would recognize his most intimate man friend--or
himself--when in that paroxysm. Mildred had seen this mood, gleaming at
her through a mask, in General Siddall. It had made her sick with fear
and repulsion. In Stanley Baird it first astounded her, then filled
her with hate.

"Stanley!" she gasped.

"WHO is it?" he ground out between his teeth. And he seized her
savagely.

"If you don't release me at once," said she calmly, "I shall call Mrs.
Brindley, and have you put out of the house. No matter if I do owe you
all that money."

"Stop!" he cried, releasing her. "You're very clever, aren't
you?--turning that against me and making me powerless."

"But for that, would you dare presume to touch me, to question me?"
said she.

He lowered his gaze, stood panting with the effort to subdue his fury.

She went back to her own room. A few hours later came a letter of
apology from him. She answered it friendlily, said she would let him
know when she could see him again, and enclosed a note and a check.

VIII

MILDRED went to bed that night proud of her strength of character. Were
there many women--was there any other woman she knew or knew about--who
in her desperate circumstances would have done what she had done? She
could have married a man who would have given her wealth and the very
best social position. She had refused him. She could have continued
to "borrow" from him the wherewithal to keep her in luxurious comfort
while she looked about at her ease for a position that meant
independence. She had thrust the temptation from her. All this from
purely high-minded motives; for other motive there could be none. She
went to sleep, confident that on the morrow she would continue to tread
the path of self-respect with unfaltering feet. But when morning came
her throat was once more slightly off--enough to make it wise to
postpone the excursion in search of a trial for musical comedy. The
excitement or the reaction from excitement--it must be the one or the
other--had resulted in weakness showing itself, naturally, at her
weakest point--that delicate throat. When life was calm and orderly,
and her mind was at peace, the trouble would pass, and she could get a
position of some kind. Not the career she h