instances, the gentlemen carried large sums of money with them,
and their hands flew to their well-filled pockets at once. They would be
only too pleased, they declared. How much would she need?

Sally named as large a sum as she thought each of them could stand, and
in less than half an hour she had the full amount which Victor Lamont
had said he must have.

CHAPTER XLI.

"Now send Mr. Lamont to me here without delay," she said to Antoinette.

The girl did not have to do much searching. Mr. Lamont was in the
corridor. He hastened to answer the summons with alacrity.

"There is the money," cried Sally, almost swooning from excitement.
"Thirty thousand dollars, and----"

"By George! you are a trump, my dear!" exclaimed Victor Lamont,
restraining himself by the greatest effort from uttering a wild whoop of
delight. "That was splendidly done!"

Sally looked the disgust that swept over her.

"I have it all to pay back within three months," she said. "You have
forgotten that, it seems, Mr. Lamont, and by that time I shall expect
you to have procured the money to reimburse these gentlemen."

Victor Lamont laughed a sarcastic laugh.

"I shall not detain you longer, my dear Mrs. Gardiner," he said. "Your
husband will be waiting to take you to the train. I shall not say
good-bye, but _au revoir_. I will write you, sending my letters
addressed to your maid, Antoinette. She will give them to you."

"No, no!" answered Sally, nervously; "you must never write to me, only
send me the money to repay today's indebtedness. Our friendship, which
we drifted into unconsciously, was a terrible mistake. It has ended in
disaster, and it must stop here and now."

"As the queen wills," murmured Lamont, raising to his lips the little
white hand that had given him so much money.

But deep down in his heart he had no intention of letting slip through
his fingers a woman who had turned into a veritable gold mine under his
subtle tuition. Ah, no! that was only the beginning of the vast sums she
must raise for him in the future.

CHAPTER XLII.

As the carriage containing Jay Gardiner and Sally came to a sudden stop,
he put his head out of the window to learn the cause, and found they had
already reached the station.

"We shall reach home by nightfall," he said in a tone of relief.

But to this remark Sally made no reply. She was wondering how she could
ever endure life under the same roof with his prying mother and