mmitted a crime and punishment was at hand. Tears of distress
came to her eyes; the situation was becoming intolerable.

It was just then that there came a shrill cry:

"Miss Ridge!"

Grace remained immovable. The name she had inquired for a few minutes
ago was called without bringing a sign or change of expression to the
beautiful face, on which the wondering eyes of the clerk were fixed. He
started to speak, but was withheld by her impassibility.

Again the same cry, and this time, the last word was accentuated. A boy
entered.

As the clerk, slightly raising his eyebrows, turned toward her, Grace
gave a little start; an enlightened glance shot from her eyes; the
significance of the call gradually dawned upon her.

"I am Miss Ridge!" came excitedly from her trembling lips, the hot blood
crimsoning her cheeks.

"A telephone--"

"For me?" she asked uneasily.

"From Mr. Ridge; wants you to wait," finished the boy.

"Thank you! Oh, thank you!" The girl beamed her relief on the staring
bell-boy. And, the message having been delayed, the grateful words were
hardly spoken before Hugh, almost distracted, rushed into the room.
Regardless of appearances or consequences, the tall young fellow seized
her and kissed her in a fashion that would have brought terrible
rebuke, under any other circumstance, and which certainly caused the
clerk to consider this Mr. Ridge the most demonstrative brother that in
a long experience in hotel life he had ever encountered. When Hugh held
her at arm's length to give his admiring gaze full scope, he saw tears
of joy swimming in her eyes. Her voice quivered as she sighed:

"I should have died in another moment!"

"You are the dearest girl in all the world!" Then he explained to her
the cause of the delay. After getting rid of Woods, he had rushed to the
Hotel Astor, where he expected to find her waiting for him. All
inquiries as to whether any lady answering to her description had been
seen there had resulted in failure. He would have been there yet,
growing angrier all the while, had not a gentleman who had overheard his
troubles suggested that he telephone the Astor House, in the hope that
the lady might be waiting there.

At the end of this recital of his vexatious experience Hugh seized her
travelling-bag, and together they made their way out of the hotel.

"Oh, Hugh!" cried Grace, hanging back a little. "What did Mr. Woods say
to you? What did you say? Do you know he tried to