her and you----"

Tommy roused himself.

"That's all right," he said quickly. "Tuppence and I have been pals for
years. Nothing more." He lit a cigarette with a hand that shook ever
so little. "That's quite all right. Tuppence always said that she was
looking out for----"

He stopped abruptly, his face crimsoning, but Julius was in no way
discomposed.

"Oh, I guess it'll be the dollars that'll do the trick. Miss Tuppence
put me wise to that right away. There's no humbug about her. We ought to
gee along together very well."

Tommy looked at him curiously for a minute, as though he were about
to speak, then changed his mind and said nothing. Tuppence and Julius!
Well, why not? Had she not lamented the fact that she knew no rich men?
Had she not openly avowed her intention of marrying for money if she
ever had the chance? Her meeting with the young American millionaire
had given her the chance--and it was unlikely she would be slow to avail
herself of it. She was out for money. She had always said so. Why blame
her because she had been true to her creed?

Nevertheless, Tommy did blame her. He was filled with a passionate and
utterly illogical resentment. It was all very well to SAY things like
that--but a REAL girl would never marry for money. Tuppence was utterly
cold-blooded and selfish, and he would be delighted if he never saw her
again! And it was a rotten world!

Julius's voice broke in on these meditations.

"Yes, we ought to get along together very well. I've heard that a girl
always refuses you once--a sort of convention."

Tommy caught his arm.

"Refuses? Did you say REFUSES?"

"Sure thing. Didn't I tell you that? She just rapped out a 'no' without
any kind of reason to it. The eternal feminine, the Huns call it, I've
heard. But she'll come round right enough. Likely enough, I hustled her
some----"

But Tommy interrupted regardless of decorum.

"What did she say in that note?" he demanded fiercely.

The obliging Julius handed it to him.

"There's no earthly clue in it as to where she's gone," he assured
Tommy. "But you might as well see for yourself if you don't believe me."

The note, in Tuppence's well-known schoolboy writing, ran as follows:

"DEAR JULIUS,

"It's always better to have things in black and white. I don't feel I
can be bothered to think of marriage until Tommy is found. Let's leave
it till then.

"Yours affectionately,

"TUPPENCE."

Tommy handed it back, his eyes