dmit that you've gotten on very well
so far, but your methods are horribly crude, still."

"My methods?" Willa was honestly puzzled. "I wasn't aware that I had
any. When people bore me I let them alone; but those I find
interesting for one reason or another I listen to. Is it crude to
discriminate?"

Angie bit her lip.

"You can be very simple and naive when you want to!" she burst out.
"But do reserve it for outsiders, and spare us! I know you for what
you are: sly and sneaking and mean! Your cheap, common little airs and
graces don't deceive me, they only disgust me more and more! I wish
Mr. North had left you where he found you, with your gamblers and
horse-thieves and roustabouts!"

"So do I," Willa retorted frankly. "They were men, anyway. You are
unjust because you are hurt, and I am sorry for you. I wish you could
understand, but I am afraid you will not believe me. Mr. Wiley----"

"Will you kindly leave his name out of this discussion?" demanded
Angie. "I am not in the least jealous, I assure you! He is nothing to
me, I merely object to the underhand way you maneuvered to receive him
alone. That sort of thing may be all right where you came from, but it
is a little bit too raw to put in practice here."

The appearance of the others brought the quarrel to a close and they
went out to the waiting limousine in a constrained silence. Mrs.
Halstead glanced from her daughter's flushed face to Willa's pale one,
and her lips tightened. Had Angie been foolish enough to betray
herself to this interloper?

Willa was sincerely distressed. There had never been any real
congeniality between the two girls, but her heart ached for the other's
evident suffering. Her own conscience was not quite clear for she had
permitted Wiley to show his hand without stopping to think of Angie, so
determined had she been to learn the depths to which this man would
descend in his ruthless self-seeking. She had weighed her cousin
shrewdly and she did not believe her capable of deep and lasting
affection, yet she shuddered at the thought of any girl's heart in
Starr Wiley's keeping.

They were late, as Angie had prophesied. The Erskine drawing-room was
crowded, and Willa stared about blankly, her mind still burdened with
her cousin's resentment. Then all at once she became conscious of a
tall figure which disengaged itself from a nearby group and came
eagerly forward.

Mechanically she held out her hand, and a voi