room. On the dresser lay Barbara's hand bag, the one she
had carried with her on her way from Kingsbridge. She had not used it
since, Ruth having bought her a very handsome bag in Chicago during one
of their shopping expeditions. Bab remembered that there was a
handkerchief in the bag.

Opening the bag, she drew out the handkerchief which lay under some
other articles. As she did so something white fluttered to the floor a
few feet from where she was standing. Barbara wiped her eyes, then stood
regarding herself in the mirror. She saw that her own face was troubled
and that her eyes were red, as though she had been weeping. Then she
stepped over, picking up the handsome coat that Mr. Stuart and Ruth had
given her for Christmas. With a sigh Bab laid the coat down, smoothed it
out and began preparing for bed. She had given no further thought to the
little piece of white cardboard that had slipped from her handkerchief a
few moments before. Bab was in bed, snuggling down by Mollie, very
shortly afterwards, with the lights turned off. The girl lay staring
into the darkness until her weary eyelids closed and she dropped off to
sleep.

When Barbara awoke the following morning Mollie was still sleeping
soundly. Bab, however, rose at once, still rubbing her eyes and trying
to recall something that had been troubling her when she went to sleep.
Suddenly it all came back to Bab in a flood of disagreeable
recollection.

Barbara took her time at making her toilet, thinking deeply as she
brushed her thick, fine hair before the mirror. The girl had half turned
to call Mollie when all at once she caught sight of the bit of
pasteboard lying on the floor.

"I wonder what that is? I remember seeing something fall from the bag
last night."

She picked up the card, glanced at it carelessly and was about to toss
it on the dresser top when suddenly Bab uttered a little gasp. Her hand
trembled. She gazed with staring eyes at the name on the card. "Mr.
Nathan Bonner," she read.

For the moment Bab continued to stare.

"The man in section thirteen," she murmured. Bab tried to recall what
had been said about Nathan Bonner, but she could not remember. She knew
only that what she had heard had left an unpleasant impression on her
mind. It was Nathan Bonner whom she had seen in the Pit at the Board of
Trade. She shuddered as she recalled the almost demoniac expression on
that hard, cruel face. Then all at once the conversation that she had