he lad fingered the book gingerly, and said timidly:

"I'm going to see ... I have an appointment with this terrible woman
for to-morrow afternoon. In fact, I saw her this morning. I went to her
office with Sister Mary Magdalen."

"Of course the good Sister has a scheme to convert the poor thing!"
Arthur said lightly, concealing his delight and surprise under a
pretense of indifference.

"Well, yes," and the lad laughed and blushed. "And she may succeed too.
The greater the sin the deeper the repentance. The unfortunate
woman----"

"Who is making a fortune on her book by the way----"

"----received us very kindly. Sister Magdalen had been corresponding with
her. She wept in admitting that her fall seemed beyond hope. She felt so
tangled in her own sins that she knew no way to get out of them. Really,
she _was_ so sincere. When we were leaving she begged me to call again,
and as I have to return to the seminary Monday I named to-morrow
afternoon."

"You may then have the honor of converting her."

"It would be an honor," Louis replied stoutly.

"Try it," said Arthur after thinking the matter over. "I know what force
_your_ arguments will have with her. And if you don't object I'll stay
... by the way, where is her office?"

"In a quiet business building on Bleecker Street, near Broadway."

"If you don't mind I'll stay outside in the hall, and rush in to act as
altar-boy, when she agrees to 'vert."

"I'm going for all your ridicule, Arthur."

"No objection, but keep a cool head, and bear in mind that I am in the
hall outside."

He suspected the motive of Sister Claire, both in making this
appointment, and in playing at conversion with Sister Magdalen. Perhaps
it might prove the right sort of trap for her cunning feet. He doubted
the propriety of exposing Louis to the fangs of the beast, and for a
moment he thought to warn him of the danger. But he had no right to
interfere in Sister Magdalen's affair, and if a beginning had to be made
this adventure could be used effectively. He forgot the affair within
the hour, in the business of hunting up Curran.

He had a double reason for seeking the detective. Besides the task of
ferreting out the record of Sister Claire, he wished to get news of the
Endicotts. Aunt Lois had slipped out of life two days after her return
from Europe. The one heart that loved him truly beat for him no more. By
this time her vengeance must have fallen, and Sonia, learning the full
ex