t get in with the heiress later, perhaps, when things
had quieted down a little and she had her money.

Betty received a pitiful letter from her stepmother, trying to explain
away her part in the affair and professing to be so relieved at the news
that Betty was still alive and well that she cared nothing about
anything else, not even the fact that poor dear Herbert was landed in
jail, or that the fortune which she had schemed so long to keep in her
own power was wrested from her so ignominiously. She begged Betty to
come back to their home and "be happy again together."

But Betty was so happy where she was that she could afford to be
generous and try to forget her wrongs. She wrote a decent little note
gently but firmly declining to come "home" ever again, making it quite
plain that she was no longer deceived by honeyed phrases, and closing
with a request that if in future any communication might be necessary it
should be made through her lawyer, Mr. Warren Reyburn.

This same Warren Reyburn had returned to his city office in a very much
exalted state of mind. He could not get away from that little hand of
Betty's that had been laid so tremblingly and confidingly in his; and
yet how could he, a poverty-stricken lawyer with absolutely no prospects
at all, ever dare to think of her, a lady of vast estates. Still, there
was some comfort in the fact that he had still some business to transact
for her, and would have to return to Tinsdale again. He might at least
see her once more. So he solaced himself on his return trip, feeling
that he had done some good work, and that he would have a pleasant
report to give to Jane Carson when he called upon her, as he meant to do
the next day.

He arrived at home to find James Ryan in a great state of excitement. A
pile of mail had arrived, and he had memorized the return addresses on
the outside of all the envelopes. One was from a big corporation, and
another bore a name widely spoken of in the circles of the world of
finance, Jimmie in close council with Jane Carson, had decided that it
must be from that person who called up twice on the 'phone and swore
such terrible oaths when he found that Reyburn was away.

Jimmie hovered nervously about, putting things to rights, while Reyburn
read his mail. He had come to the smallest envelope of all, a plain
government envelope now, and nothing had developed. Jimmie saw his first
place fast slipping away from him and his heart grew heavy