s hardly of a temperament to appreciate.

Did he appear dissatisfied? Yes; but only one person in the opera house
knew why. Miss Strange had shown no comprehension of or sympathy with
his errand. Though she chatted amiably enough between duets and trios,
she gave him no opportunity to express his wishes though she knew them
well enough, owing to the signal he had given her.

This might be in character but it hardly suited his views; and, being a
man of resolution, he took advantage of an absorbing minute on the stage
to lean forward and whisper in her ear:

"It's my daughter for whom I request your services; as fine a girl as
any in this house. Give me a hearing. You certainly can manage it."

She was a small, slight woman whose naturally quaint appearance was
accentuated by the extreme simplicity of her attire. In the tier upon
tier of boxes rising before his eyes, no other personality could
vie with hers in strangeness, or in the illusive quality of her
ever-changing expression. She was vivacity incarnate and, to the
ordinary observer, light as thistledown in fibre and in feeling. But not
to all. To those who watched her long, there came moments--say when
the music rose to heights of greatness--when the mouth so given over to
laughter took on curves of the rarest sensibility, and a woman's lofty
soul shone through her odd, bewildering features.

Driscoll had noted this, and consequently awaited her reply in secret
hope.

It came in the form of a question and only after an instant's display of
displeasure or possibly of pure nervous irritability.

"What has she done?"

"Nothing. But slander is in the air, and any day it may ripen into
public accusation."

"Accusation of what?" Her tone was almost pettish.

"Of--of theft," he murmured. "On a great scale," he emphasized, as the
music rose to a crash.

"Jewels?"

"Inestimable ones. They are always returned by somebody. People say, by
me."

"Ah!" The little lady's hands grew steady,--they had been fluttering all
over her lap. "I will see you to-morrow morning at my father's house,"
she presently observed; and turned her full attention to the stage.

Some three days after this Mr. Driscoll opened his house on the Hudson
to notable guests. He had not desired the publicity of such an event,
nor the opportunity it gave for an increase of the scandal secretly in
circulation against his daughter. But the Ambassador and his wife were
foreign and any evasion of t