ina Nora McGinnis Caravaggio called him to one side and confided
a most delicate message to him.

"Your friend, Mr. Bates," she began with an embarrassed hesitation
quite unusual in the direct Irish girl; "he's a nice boy, from the
ground up, and give him an easy word from me. But, Mr. Burnit, give
him a hint not to do any more traveling on my account; for I've got a
husband back in New York that ain't worth the rat poison to put him
out of his misery, but I'm not getting any divorces. One mistake is
enough. But don't be too hard on me when you tell Biff. Honest, up to
just the last, I thought he'd come only to see you; but I enjoyed his
visits." And in the eyes of the Caravaggio there stood real tears.

A newsboy met Bobby on the train with the morning papers from home,
and in them he read delightfully flavored and spiced accounts of the
great Villenauve breach-of-promise case, embellished with many details
that were entirely new to him. He had not counted on this phase of the
matter, and it struck him almost as with an ague. The notoriety, the
askance looks he would receive from his more conservative
acquaintances, the "ragging" he would get at his clubs, all these he
could stand. But Agnes! How could he ever face her? How would she
receive him? From the train he took a cab directly home and buried
himself there to think it all over. He spent a morning of intense
dejection and an afternoon of the utmost misery. In the evening, not
caring to dine in solitary gloom at home nor to appear yet among his
fellows, he went out to an obscure restaurant in the neighborhood and
ate his dinner, then came back again to his lonely room, seeing
nothing ahead of him but an evening of melancholy alone. His butler,
however, met him in the hall on his return.

"Miss Elliston called up on the 'phone while you were out, sir."

"Did you tell her I was at home?" asked Bobby with quick apprehension.

"Yes, sir; you hadn't told me not to do so, sir; and she left word
that you were to come straight out to the house as soon as you came
in."

"Very well," said Bobby, and went into the library.

He sat down before the telephone and rested his hand upon the receiver
for perhaps as much as five long minutes of hesitation, then abruptly
he turned away from that unsatisfactory means of communication and had
his car ordered; then hurriedly changed to the evening clothes he had
not intended to don that night.

In most uncertain anticipation, b