ed
inside her blouse and made an uncomfortable lump there at her waist. But
she hid this with her arm, feeling that she must be on the watch for some
sharper all the time.

"Big Hen was right when he warned me," she repeated, eyeing suspiciously
the several passengers in the Fifth Avenue bus.

They were mostly early shoppers, however, or gentlemen riding to their
offices. She had noticed the number of the street nearest her uncle's
house, and so got out at the right corner.

The change in this part of the town since she had walked away from it soon
after seven, amazed her. She almost became confused and started in the
wrong direction. The roar of traffic, the rattle of riveters at work on
several new buildings in the neighborhood, the hoarse honking of
automobiles, the shrill whistles of the traffic policemen at the corners,
and the various other sounds seemed to make another place of the
old-fashioned Madison Avenue block.

"My goodness! To live in such confusion, and yet have money enough to be
able to enjoy a home out of town," thought Helen. "How foolish of Uncle
Starkweather."

She made no mistake in the house this time. There was Gregson--now spick
and span in his maroon livery--haughtily mounting guard over the open
doorway while a belated scrubwoman was cleaning the steps and areaway.

Helen tripped up the steps with a smile for Gregson; but that wooden-faced
subject of King George had no joint in his neck. He could merely raise a
finger in salute.

"Is the family up, sir?" she asked, politely.

"In Mr. Starkweather's den, Miss," said the footman, being unable to leave
his post at the moment. Mr. Lawdor was not in sight and Helen set out to
find the room in question, wondering if the family had already
breakfasted. The clock in the hall chimed the quarter to ten as she passed
it.

The great rooms on this floor were open now; but empty. She suddenly heard
voices. She found a cross passage that she had not noticed before, and
entered it, the voices growing louder.

She came to a door before which hung heavy curtains; but these curtains
did not deaden the sound entirely. Indeed, as Helen hesitated, with her
hand stretched out to seize the portiere, she heard something that halted
her.

Indeed, what she heard within the next few moments entirely changed the
outlook of the girl from Sunset Ranch. It matured that doubt of humanity
that had been born the night before in her breast.

And it changed--for