e-curl age. The next
phase, if he ever reaches it, will be somebody who will make him
do--not as he pleases, but as SHE pleases. A man like Max never cares
for a woman any length of time who humors his whims."

"Well, he certainly was most attentive to that pretty Miss Billeton.
You remember her father was lost overboard four years ago from his
yacht. Mr. Coates told me he met her only a day or so ago; she had come
down to look after the new ball-room they are adding to the old house.
You know her, don't you?"

"No--never heard of her. How old is she?" rejoined Lucy in a careless
tone.

"I should say twenty, maybe twenty-two--you can't always tell about
these girls; very pretty and very rich. I am quite sure I saw Mr.
Feilding driving with her just before he moved his horses down here,
and she looked prettier than ever. But then he has a new flame every
month, I hear."

"Where were they driving?" There was a slight tone of curiosity in
Lucy's voice. None of Max's love-affairs ever affected her, of course,
except as they made for his happiness; all undue interest, therefore,
was out of place, especially before Mrs. Coates.

"I don't remember. Along the River Road, perhaps--he generally drives
there when he has a pretty woman with him."

Lucy bit her lip. Some other friend, then, had been promised the drag
with the red body and yellow wheels! This was why he couldn't come to
Yardley when she wrote for him. She had found the button. It rang up
another woman.

The door between the connecting sitting-rooms was not opened that day,
nor that night, for that matter. Lucy pleaded a headache and wished to
be alone. She really wanted to look the field over and see where her
line of battle was weak. Not that she really cared--unless the girl
should upset her plans; not as Jane would have cared had Doctor John
been guilty of such infidelity. The eclipse was what hurt her. She had
held the centre of the stage with the lime-light full upon her all her
life, and she intended to retain it against Miss Billeton or Miss
Anybody else. She decided to let Max know at once, and in plain terms,
giving him to understand that she didn't intend to be made a fool of,
reminding him at the same time that there were plenty of others who
cared for her, or who would care for her if she should but raise her
little finger. She WOULD raise it, too, even if she packed her trunks
and started for Paris--and took him with her.

These thoughts rushe