time he said:

"You won't tell me the name of the man you met there?"

"No. Don't ask me, Willy. That's between him and me." He got up and took
a restless turn or two about the little rooms. Edith's problem had begun
to obsess him. Not for long would it be possible to keep her condition
from Mrs. Boyd. He was desperately at a loss for some course to pursue.

"Have you ever thought," he said at last, "that this man, whoever he is,
ought to marry you?"

Edith's face set like a flint.

"I don't want to marry him," she said. "I wouldn't marry him if he was
the last man on earth."

He knew very little of Edith's past. In his own mind he had fixed on
Louis Akers, but he could not be sure.

"I won't tell you his name, either," Edith added, shrewishly. Then her
voice softened. "I will tell you this, Willy," she said wistfully. "I
was a good girl until I knew him. I'm not saying that to let myself out.
It's the truth."

"You're a good girl now," he said gravely.

Some time after he got his hat and came in to tell her he was going out.

"I'll tell what you've told me to Mr. Hendricks," he said. "And we may
go on and have a talk with the Chief of Police. If you are right it may
be important."

After that for an hour or two Edith sat alone, save when Ellen now and
then looked in to see if she was comfortable.

Edith's mind was chaotic. She had spoken on impulse, a good impulse at
that. But suppose they trapped Louis Akers in the Searing Building?

Ellen went now and then to the Cardew house, and brought back with her
the news of the family. At first she had sternly refused to talk about
the Cardews to Edith, but the days in the sick room had been long and
monotonous, and Edith's jealousy of Lily had taken the form, when she
could talk, of incessant questions.

So Edith knew that Louis Akers had been the cause of Lily's leaving
home, and called her a poor thing in her heart. Quite lately she had
heard that if Lily was not already engaged she probably would be, soon.
Now her motives were mixed, and her emotions confused. She had wanted
to tell Willy Cameron what she knew, but she wanted Lily to marry Louis
Akers. She wanted that terribly. Then Lily would be out of the way,
and--Willy was not like Dan; he did not seem to think her forever lost.
He had always been thoughtful, but lately he had been very tender with
her. Men did strange things sometimes. He might be willing to forget,
after a long time. She could board