ss came up.

"It was so good of you to come!" said Alicia effusively to a fat woman
with impossible blond hair and a rouged face. "I want to introduce Dr.
Bernstein to you."

"Oh, I shall be delighted," smiled the blonde. Gushingly she added: "How
perfectly exquisite you look to-night, my dear."

"Do you think so?" said Alicia, pleased at the clumsy flattery.

"Your dress is stunning and your tiara simply gorgeous," raved another.

"Your musicales are always so delightful," exclaimed a third.

At that moment Mr. Jeffries caught his wife by the arm and drew her
attention to some newcomers. With a laugh she left the group and
hurried toward the door. Directly she was out of earshot, the three
women began whispering:

"Isn't she terribly overdressed?" exclaimed the blonde. "The cheek of
such a _parvenue_ to wear that tiara."

"Her face is all made up, too," said another.

"These affairs of hers are awfully stupid, don't you think so?" piped
the third.

"Yes, they bore everybody to death," said the blonde. "She's ambitious
and likes to think she is a social leader. I only come here because it
amuses me to see what a fool she makes of herself. Fancy a woman of her
age marrying a man old enough to be her father. By the bye, I don't see
her _beau_ here to-night."

"You mean that scamp, Robert Underwood?"

"Isn't it perfectly scandalous, the way he dances after her? I'm
surprised Mr. Jeffries allows him to come to the house."

"Maybe there's been a row. Perhaps that explains why he's not here
to-night. It's the first time I've known him absent from one of her
musicales."

"He's conspicuous by his absence. Do you know what I heard the other
day? I was told that Underwood had again been caught cheating at cards
and summarily expelled from the club--kicked out, so to speak."

"I'm not at all surprised. I always had my doubts about him. He induced
a friend of mine to buy a picture, and got a tremendous price for it on
the false representation that it was a genuine Corot. My friend found
out afterward that he had been duped. Proceedings were threatened, but
Underwood managed to hush the affair by returning part of the money."

In another part of the room a couple were discussing Mr. Jeffries as he
stood talking with Judge Brewster.

"Did you notice how Mr. Jeffries has aged recently? He no longer seems
the same man."

"No wonder, after all the trouble he's had. Of course you know what a
disappointment his son