ever be the latter!"

"And you always respect the wishes of a friend, especially if she is a
lady, do you not?"

"Always, Madam," he returned after a moment's hesitation, as he bowed
low over her hand.

"Then, good-bye. And, Monsignor," she added, when he reached the door,
"I shall be pleased to attend the dedication of the Hawley-Crowles
altar."

When Monsignor's car glided away from her door the Beaubien's face
grew dark, and her eyes drew to narrow slits. "So," she reflected, as
she entered the elevator to mount to her dressing room, "that is her
game, is it? The poor, fat simpleton has no interest in either the
girl or myself, other than to use us as stepping-stones. She forgets
that a stone sometimes turns under the foot. Fool!"

She entered her room and rang for her maid. Turning to the pier glass,
she threw on the electric light and scrutinized her features narrowly.
"It's going," she murmured, "fast! God, how I hate those gray hairs!
Oh, what a farce life is--what a howling, mocking farce! I hate it! I
hate everything--everybody! No--that little girl--if it is possible
for me to love, I love her."

She sank into an easy chair. "I wonder what it is she does to me. I'm
hypnotized, I guess. Anyhow, I'm different when I'm with her. And to
think that Hawley-Crowles would sacrifice the child--humph! But, if
the girl is made of the right stuff--and I know she is--she will stand
up under it and be stronger for the experience. She has got something
that will make her stand! I once asked her what she had that I didn't,
and now I know--it is her religion, the religion that Borwell and
Lafelle and the whole kit of preachers and priests would corrupt if
they had half a chance! Very well, we'll see what it does under the
test. If it saves her, then I want it myself. But, as for that little
pin-headed Hawley-Crowles, she's already signed her own death-warrant.
She shall get into the Ames set, yes. And I will use her, oh,
beautifully! to pay off certain old scores against Madam Ames--and
then I'll crush her like a dried leaf, the fat fool!"

The Beaubien's position was, to say the least, peculiar, and one which
required infinite tact on her part to protect. It was for that reason
that the decorum which prevailed at her dinners was so rigidly
observed, and that, whatever the moral status of the man who sat at
her board, his conduct was required to be above reproach, on penalty
of immediate ejection from the circle of fi