feur
he pretends to be!"

She freed herself and her eyes flashed angrily.

"You don't know what you're saying! That man is a gentleman, and if he
went to pieces for a while it was my fault. I met him at the Drakes' last
year when you were away hunting in Canada. He came to our house
afterward, but for some reason father took one of his strong dislikes to
him, and forbade my seeing him again. I knew he was with this man Hood,
and when I left the table awhile ago I met him outside the servants'
dining-room and told him I would talk to him here."

"What does he call himself?" Deering asked.

"Torrence is the name the Drakes gave him," she answered with faint
irony. "He's a ranchman in Wyoming and was in Bob Drake's class in
college."

He knew perfectly well that the Drakes were not people likely to
countenance an impostor. His first instinct had been to protect his
sister from an unknown scamp, and he was sorry that he had spoken to her
so roughly. Her distress and anxiety were apparent, and he was filled
with pity for her. Since childhood they had been the best of pals, and if
she loved a man who was worthy of her he would aid the affair in every
way possible. He was surprised by the abruptness with which she stepped
close to him and laid her hand on his arm.

"Billy, who _is_ Hood?" she whispered.

"I don't know!" he ejaculated, and then as she eyed him curiously he
explained hurriedly: "I was in an awful mess when he turned up, Connie.
I'd gone into a copper deal with Ned Ranscomb and needed more money to
help him through with it. I put in all I had and touched one of father's
boxes at the bank for some more and lost it, or didn't lose it; God knows
what did become of it! It would take a week to tell you the whole story.
Ranscomb disappeared, absolutely, and there I was! I should have killed
myself if that lunatic Hood hadn't turned up and hypnotized me. But
what--what--" (he fairly choked with the question), "in heaven's name are
you doing here? Why did you cut out California? I tell you, Connie, if
I'm not crazy everybody else is! I nearly fainted when you came into the
dining-room."

Constance smiled at his despair, but hurried on with explanations:

"We can't talk here, but I can clear up a few things. Father read that
woman's book, and it went to his head. Yes," she added as Deering groaned
in his helplessness, "father's acting a good deal like those people in
the drawing-room. He's got the May madness,