he reason of Mrs. Everleigh's
coming was because Mr. Spillikins was there. She came with a set
purpose, and she sent Captain Cormorant directly back in the motor
because she didn't want him on the premises.

"Oughtn't we to go up to the house?" said Norah.

"All right," said Mr. Spillikins with great alacrity, "let's go."

* * * * *

Now as this story began with the information that Mrs. Everleigh is at
present Mrs. Everleigh-Spillikins, there is no need to pursue in detail
the stages of Mr. Spillikins's wooing. Its course was swift and happy.
Mr. Spillikins, having seen the back of Mrs. Everleigh's head, had
decided instantly that she was the most beautiful woman in the world;
and that impression is not easily corrected in the half-light of a
shaded drawing-room; nor across a dinner-table lighted only with
candles with deep red shades; nor even in the daytime through a veil.
In any case, it is only fair to state that if Mrs. Everleigh was not
and is not a singularly beautiful woman, Mr. Spillikins still doesn't
know it. And in point of attraction the homage of such experts as
Captain Cormorant and Lieutenant Hawk speaks for itself.

So the course of Mr. Spillikins's love, for love it must have been, ran
swiftly to its goal. Each stage of it was duly marked by his comments
to Norah.

"She _is_ a splendid woman," he said, "so sympathetic. She always seems
to know just what one's going to say."

So she did, for she was making him say it.

"By Jove!" he said a day later, "Mrs. Everleigh's an awfully fine
woman, isn't she? I was telling her about my having been in the oil
business for a little while, and she thinks that I'd really be awfully
good in money things. She said she wished she had me to manage her
money for her."

This also was quite true, except that Mrs. Everleigh had not made it
quite clear that the management of her money was of the form generally
known as deficit financing. In fact, her money was, very crudely
stated, nonexistent, and it needed a lot of management.

A day or two later Mr. Spillikins was saying, "I think Mrs. Everleigh
must have had great sorrow, don't you? Yesterday she was showing me a
photograph of her little boy--she has a little boy you know--"

"Yes, I know," said Norah. She didn't add that she knew that Mrs.
Everleigh had four.

"--and she was saying how awfully rough it is having him always away
from her at Dr. Something's academy where he is."

And