antagonist against whom she played had turned her weapons
adroitly and caught her in the deadly meshes of his fatal net. Not for
an instant since she stood upon the lawn at Ascot and witnessed the
defeat of her great horse Lodestar had she ceased to tell herself that
the world pointed the finger at her and held up her name to scorn. "They
say that I cheated them," she would tell herself and that estimate of
the common judgment was entirely true.

It had been a great race upon a brilliant day of summer. Alban had
accompanied her to the enclosure and feasted his eyes upon that rainbow
scene, so amazing in its beauty, so bewildering in its glow of color
that it stood, to his untrained imagination, for the whole glory of the
world. Of the horses or their meaning he knew nothing at all. This
picture of radiant women, laughing, feasting, flirting at the heart of a
natural forest; the vast concourse of spectators--the thousand hues of
color flashing in the sunshine, the stands, the music, the royal
procession, the superbly caparisoned horses, the State carriages--what a
spectacle it was, how far surpassing all that he had been led to expect
of Money and its kingdom. Let Anna move excitedly amid the throng,
laughing with this man, changing wit with another--he was content just
to watch the people, to reflect upon their happy lives, it may be to ask
himself what justification they had when the children were wanting bread
and the great hosts of the destitute lay encamped beyond the pale. Such
philosophy, to be sure, had but a short shrift on such a day. The
intoxication of the scene quickly ran hot in his veins and he
surrendered to it willingly. These were hours to live, precious every
one of them--and who would not worship the gold which brought them, who
would not turn to it as to the lodestar of desire?

And then the race! Anna had talked of nothing else since they set out in
the motor to drive over to the course. Her anger against Willy Forrest
appeared to be forgotten for the time being--he, on his part, eying
Alban askance, but making no open complaint against him, met her in the
paddock and repeated his assurances that Lodestar could not lose.

"They run him down to evens, Anna," he said, "and precious lucky we
were to get the price we did. There'll be some howls to-night, but
what's that to us? Are we a philanthropic society, do we live to endow
the multitude? Not much, by no means, oh dear, no. We live to make an
hon