third time.

So he answered, "Very well."

He went; and when he entered the house, the butler led him to the
elevator, saying, "Mrs. Duval says will you please come upstairs, sir."
And there Mrs. Winnie met him, with flushed cheeks and eager
countenance.

She was even lovelier than usual, in a soft cream-coloured gown, and a
crimson rose in her bosom. "I'm all alone to-night," she said, "so
we'll dine in my apartments. We'd be lost in that big room downstairs."

She led him into her drawing-room, where great armfuls of new roses
scattered their perfume. There was a table set for two, and two big
chairs before the fire which blazed in the hearth. Montague noticed
that her hand trembled a little, as she motioned him to one of them; he
could read her excitement in her whole aspect. She was flinging down
the gauntlet to her enemies!

"Let us eat first and talk afterward," she said, hurriedly. "We'll be
happy for a while, anyway."

And she went on to be happy, in her nervous and eager way. She talked
about the new opera which was to be given, and about Mrs. de
Graffenried's new entertainment, and about Mrs. Ridgley-Clieveden's
ball; also about the hospital for crippled children which she wanted to
build, and about Mrs. Vivie Patton's rumoured divorce. And, meantime,
the sphinx-like attendants moved here and there, and the dinner came
and went. They took their coffee in the big chairs by the fire; and the
table was swept clear, and the servants vanished, closing the doors
behind them.

Then Montague set his cup aside, and sat gazing sombrely into the fire.
And Mrs. Winnie watched him. There was a long silence.

Suddenly he heard her voice. "Do you find it so easy to give up our
friendship?" she asked.

"I didn't think about it's being easy or hard," he answered. "I simply
thought of protecting you."

"And do you think that my friends are nothing to me?" she demanded.
"Have I so very many as that?" And she clenched her hands with a sudden
passionate gesture. "Do you think that I will let those wretches
frighten me into doing what they want? I'll not give in to them--not
for anything that Lelia can do!"

A look of perplexity crossed Montague's face. "Lelia?" he asked.

"Mrs. Robbie Walling!" she cried. "Don't you suppose that she is
responsible for that paragraph?"

Montague started.

"That's the way they fight their battles!" cried Mrs. Winnie. "They pay
money to those scoundrels to be protected. And then t