The stunned woman mechanically took up the morning paper which lay on
the table. Her glance was at once attracted to the great headlines
announcing the complete exposure of the Simiti bubble. Her eyes nearly
burst from her head as she grasped its fatal meaning to her. With a
low, inarticulate sound issuing from her throat, she turned and groped
her way back to her boudoir.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, the automobile in which Carmen was speeding to the
Beaubien mansion was approached by a bright, smiling young woman, as
it halted for a moment at a street corner. Carmen recognized her as
a reporter for one of the evening papers, who had called often at the
Hawley-Crowles mansion that season for society items.

"Isn't it fortunate!" exclaimed the young reporter. "I was on my way
to see you. Our office received a report this morning from some source
that your father--you know, there has been some mystery about your
parentage--that he was really a priest, of South America. His
name--let me think--what did they say it was?"

"Jose?" laughed the innocent girl, utterly unsuspecting. The problem
of her descent had really become a source of amusement to her.

"It began with a D, if I am not mistaken. I'm not up on Spanish
names," the young woman returned pleasantly.

"Oh, perhaps you mean Diego."

"That's it! Was that your father's name? We're very much interested to
know."

"Well, I'm sure I can't say. It might have been."

"Then you don't deny it?"

"No; how can I?" she said, smiling. "I never knew him."

"But--you think it was, don't you?"

"Well, I don't believe it was Padre Diego--he wasn't a good man."

"Then you knew him?"

"Oh, very well! I was in his house, in Banco. He used to insist that I
was his child."

"I see. By the way, you knew a woman named Jude, didn't you? Here in
the city."

"Yes, indeed!" she exclaimed excitedly. "Do you know where she is?"

"No. But she took you out of a house down on--"

"Yes. And I've tried to find her ever since."

"You know Father Waite, too, the ex-priest?"

"Oh, yes, very well. We're good friends."

"You and he going to work together, I suppose?"

"Why, I'm sure I don't know. He's very unsettled."

"H'm! yes. Well, I thank you very much. You think this Diego might
have been your father? That is, you can't say positively that he
wasn't?"

"I can't say positively, no. But now I must go. You can come up to the
house and