e begged to be carried, planting two muddy feet on his
master's shabby trouser leg, and pleading with low whines. Willy Cameron
stooped and, gathering up the little animal, tucked him under his arm.
When it commenced to rain he put him under his coat and plunged his head
through the mud and wet toward home.

Lily had entered the house in a white fury, but a moment later she was
remorseful. For one thing, her own anger bewildered her. After all, he
had meant well, and it was like him to be honest, even if it cost him
something he valued.

She ran to the door and looked around for him, but he had disappeared.
She went in again, remorseful and unhappy. What had come over her to
treat him like that? He had looked almost stricken.

"Mr. Akers is calling, Miss Cardew," said the footman. "He is in the
drawing-room."

Lily went in slowly.

Louis Akers had been waiting for some time. He had lounged into the
drawing-room, with an ease assumed for the servant's benefit, and had
immediately lighted a cigarette. That done, and the servant departed, he
had carefully appraised his surroundings. He liked the stiff formality
of the room. He liked the servant in his dark maroon livery. He
liked the silence and decorum. Most of all, he liked himself in these
surroundings. He wandered around, touching a bowl here, a vase there,
eyeing carefully the ancient altar cloth that lay on a table, the old
needle-work tapestry on the chairs.

He saw himself fitted into this environment, a part of it; coming
down the staircase, followed by his wife, and getting into his waiting
limousine; sitting at the head of his table, while the important men of
the city listened to what he had to say. It would come, as sure as God
made little fishes. And Doyle was a fool. He, Louis Akers, would marry
Lily Cardew and block that other game. But he would let the Cardews
know who it was who had blocked it and saved their skins. They'd have to
receive him after that; they would cringe to him.

Then, unexpectedly, he had one of the shocks of his life. He had gone
to the window and through it he saw Lily and Willy Cameron outside. He
clutched at the curtain and cursed under his breath, apprehensively.
But Willy Cameron did not come in; Akers watched him up the street with
calculating, slightly narrowed eyes. The fact that Lily Cardew knew the
clerk at the Eagle Pharmacy was an unexpected complication. His surprise
was lost in anxiety. But Lily, entering the room