isinterested. Secretly, it was flattering. Still, she said nothing
about Bella, nor about Mrs. Noble. Halsey seemed to appreciate the
fact. His face showed plainly as if he had said it that here, at least,
was one woman who was not always talking about others.

There had been a rapid-fire suddenness about his confidences which had
fascinated her.

"Are you in business?" she ventured.

"Oh, yes," he laughed grimly. "I'm in business--treasurer of the
Exporting & Manufacturing Company."

"But," she pursued, looking him frankly in the face, "I should think
you'd be afraid to--er--become involved--"

"I know I am being watched," he broke in impatiently. "You see, I'm
bonded, and the bonding companies keep a pretty sharp lookout on your
habits. Oh, the crash will come some day. Until it does--let us make
the most of it--while it lasts."

He said the words bitterly. Constance was confirmed in her original
suspicion of him now. Halsey was getting deeper and deeper into the
moral quagmire. She had seen his interest in Mrs. Noble. Had Bella
LeMar hoped that she, too, would play will-o '-the-wisp in leading him
on?

Over the still half-eaten supper she watched Halsey keenly. A thousand
questions about himself, about Mrs. Noble, rushed through her mind.
Should she be perfectly frank?

"Are you--are you using the company's money!" she asked at length
pointedly.

He had not expected the question, and his evident intention was to deny
it. But he met her eye. He tried to escape it, but could not. What was
there about this little woman that had compelled his attention and
interest from the moment he had been introduced?

Quickly he tried to reason it out in his heart. It was not that she was
physically attractive to him. Mrs. Noble was that. It was not that
fascination which Bella aroused, the adventuress, the siren, the
gorgon. In Constance there was something different. She was a woman of
the world, a man's woman. Then, too, she was so brutally frank in
inviting his confidences.

Over and over he turned the answer he had intended to make. He caught
her eye again and knew that it was of no use.

"Yes," he muttered, as a cloud spread over his face at not being able,
as usual, to let the gay life put the truth out of his mind. "Yes, I
have been using--their funds."

As if a switch had been turned, the light broke on Constance. She saw
herself face to face with one of the dark shadows in the great city of
high lights.