her pretty mouth. "Nothing sweeter than you this side of
Paradise," he whispered in her ear.

While this was enacting, Butler and the extra detective had stepped out
of sight, to one side of the front door of the house, while Alderson,
taking the lead, rang the bell. A negro servant appeared.

"Is Mrs. Davis in?" he asked, genially, using the name of the woman in
control. "I'd like to see her."

"Just come in," said the maid, unsuspectingly, and indicated a
reception-room on the right. Alderson took off his soft, wide-brimmed
hat and entered. When the maid went up-stairs he immediately returned to
the door and let in Butler and two detectives. The four stepped into the
reception-room unseen. In a few moments the "madam" as the current word
characterized this type of woman, appeared. She was tall, fair, rugged,
and not at all unpleasant to look upon. She had light-blue eyes and a
genial smile. Long contact with the police and the brutalities of sex in
her early life had made her wary, a little afraid of how the world would
use her. This particular method of making a living being illicit, and
she having no other practical knowledge at her command, she was as
anxious to get along peacefully with the police and the public generally
as any struggling tradesman in any walk of life might have been. She had
on a loose, blue-flowered peignoir, or dressing-gown, open at the front,
tied with blue ribbons and showing a little of her expensive underwear
beneath. A large opal ring graced her left middle finger, and turquoises
of vivid blue were pendent from her ears. She wore yellow silk slippers
with bronze buckles; and altogether her appearance was not out of
keeping with the character of the reception-room itself, which was a
composite of gold-flowered wall-paper, blue and cream-colored Brussels
carpet, heavily gold-framed engravings of reclining nudes, and a
gilt-framed pier-glass, which rose from the floor to the ceiling.
Needless to say, Butler was shocked to the soul of him by this
suggestive atmosphere which was supposed to include his daughter in its
destructive reaches.

Alderson motioned one of his detectives to get behind the woman--between
her and the door--which he did.

"Sorry to trouble you, Mrs. Davis," he said, "but we are looking for a
couple who are in your house here. We're after a runaway girl. We don't
want to make any disturbance--merely to get her and take her away." Mrs.
Davis paled and opened her mout