he names of several women. "It is known to all,"
she said.

His impulse was to rush out and trace down the lie to its author. But
he soon realized the folly of such an attempt. He would only aggravate
the gossip and the scandal, give the scandal-mongers a new chapter for
their story. Yet he could not rest without doing something.

He went to Hilda--she had been most friendly toward him since the day
he helped her with her lover. He asked her to walk with him in the
Square. When they were alone, he began: "Hilda, you believe I'm your
friend, don't you?"

She looked as if she feared he were about to reopen the old subject.

"No--I'm not going to worry you," he said in answer to the look. "I
mean just friend."

"I know you are, Otto," she replied with tears in her eyes. "You are
indeed my friend. I've counted on you ever since you--ever since that
Sunday."

"Then you won't think wrong of me if I ask you a question? You'll know
I wouldn't, if I didn't have a good reason, even though I can't
explain?"

"Yes--what is it?"

"Hilda, is--is Mr. Feuerstein coming back?"

Hilda flushed. "Yes, Otto," she said. "I haven't spoken to any one
about it, but I can trust you. He's had trouble and it has called him
away. But he told me he'd come back." She looked at him appealingly.
"You know that I love him, Otto. Some day you will like him, will see
what a noble man he is."

"When is he coming back?"

"I didn't ask him. I knew he'd come as soon as he could. I wouldn't
pry into his affairs."

"Then you don't know why he went or when he's coming?"

"I trust him, just as you'll want a girl to trust you some day when you
love her."

As soon as he could leave her, he went up town, straight to the German
Theater. In the box-office sat a young man with hair precisely parted
in the middle and sleeked down in two whirls brought low on his
forehead.

"I'd like to get Mr. Feuerstein's address," said Otto.

"That dead-beat?" the young man replied contemptuously. "I suppose he
got into you like he did into every one else. Yes, you can have his
address. And give him one for me when you catch him. He did me out of
ten dollars."

Otto went on to the boarding-house in East Sixteenth Street. No, Mr.
Feuerstein was not in and it was not known when he would return--he was
very uncertain. Otto went to Stuyvesant Square and seated himself
where he could see the stoop of the boarding-house. An hour, two
hours, t