ique, but the pallor of the
face above it bespoke dissipation of the strength of that natural
endowment. His shoes, embellished with pearl buttons set with
rhinestones, were of the latest vogue, described in the man-who-saw
column of the theater programmes. He looked, for all the world, like
an advertisement for ready-tailored suitings.

His companion was slighter in build but equally fastidious in
appearance. When he drew a handkerchief from his cuff Bobbie completed
the survey and walked over toward old Barton, to look at the more
interesting drawings.

"You girls must come along to Dawley's, you simply must, you know,"
began Baxter, still standing. "Of course, we'd be glad to have your
father's friend, if he likes dancing."

"That's very kind of you, but you know I've a lot to talk about with
Mr. Barton," answered Bobbie, quietly.

"May we go, father?" asked Lorna, impetuously.

"Well, I thought," said the old gentleman, "I thought that you'd----"

"Father, I haven't been to a dance or a supper since you were injured.
You know that," pouted Lorna.

"What do you want to do, Mary dear?" asked the old man, helplessly.

"It's very kind of Mr. Baxter, but you know we have a guest."

Mary quietly sat down, while Lorna's temper flared.

"Well, I'm going anyway. I'm tired of working and worrying. I want to
have pleasure and music and entertainment like thousands of other girls
in New York. I owe it to myself. I don't intend to sit around here
and talk about tenement fires and silly old patents."

Burke was embarrassed, but not so the visiting fashion plates. Baxter
and Craig merely smiled at each other with studied nonchalance; they
seemed used to such scenes, thought Bobbie.

Lorna flounced angrily from the room, while her father wiped his
forehead with a trembling hand.

"Why, Lorna," he expostulated weakly. But Lorna reappeared with a
pretty evening wrap and her hat in her hand. She donned the hat,
twisting it to a coquettish angle, and Baxter unctuously assisted her
to place the wrap about her shoulders.

"Lorna, I forbid your going out at this time of the evening with two
gentlemen we have never met before," cried Mary.

But Lorna opened the door and wilfully left the room, followed by
Craig. Baxter turned as he left, and smiled sarcastically.

"Good-_night_!" he remarked, with a significant accent on the last word.

Mary's face was white, as she looked appealingly at Burke. He tried to