ace.

Constance had been looking about curiously in the meantime. On a table
she saw copies of the newspapers which published full accounts of the
races, something that looked like a racing sheet, and a telephone
conveniently located near writing materials. It was a poolroom, too,
then, in the daytime, she reasoned.

Surely, in the next room, when the light was on, she saw what looked
like a miniature roulette wheel, not one of the elaborate affairs of
bright metal and ebony, but one of those that can almost be packed into
a suitcase and carried about easily.

That was the secret of the flashily dressed men and women who called on
Bella LeMar. They were risking everything, perhaps even honor itself,
on a turn of a wheel, the fall of a card, a guess on a horse.

Why had Bella LeMar invited her here? she asked herself.

At first Constance was a little bit afraid that she might have plunged
into too deep water. She made up her mind to quit when her losses
reached a certain nominal point. But they did not reach it. Perhaps the
gamblers were too clever. But Constance seemed always to keep just a
little bit ahead of the game.

One person in particular in the group interested her as she endeavored
intuitively to take their measure. It was Haddon Halsey, immaculately
garbed, with all those little touches of smartness which women like to
see.

Once she caught Halsey looking intently at her. Was it he who was
letting her win at his expense! Or was his attention to her causing him
to neglect his own game and play it poorly?

She decided to quit. She was a few dollars ahead. For excuse she
pleaded a headache.

Bella accepted the excuse with a cordial nod and a kind inquiry whether
she might not like to lie down.

"No, thank you," murmured Constance. "But the cards make me nervous
to-night. Just let me sit here. I'll be all right in a minute."

As she lolled back on a divan near the players Constance noted, or
thought she noted, now and then exchanges of looks between Bella and
Watson. What was the bond of intimacy between them? She noted on Mrs.
Noble's part that she was keenly alive to everything that Halsey did.
It was a peculiar quadrangle.

Halsey was losing heavily in his efforts to retrieve his fortunes. He
said nothing, but accepted the losses grimly. Mrs. Noble, however,
after each successive loss seemed more and more nervous.

At last, with a hasty look at her wrist watch, she gave a little
suppressed scre