ts frequently determine our course, as well as turn us from the
one we had mapped out for ourselves. By accident I mean, in this case, an
actual one which had occurred on the branch road I have mentioned, by
which the trains were held up and further progress in that direction made
impossible. When this came to the knowledge of Mr. Gryce, he found it
necessary to choose between trusting himself to an automobile for the
rest of the journey, or of remaining all night in the town where the
train had stopped. A glance at the hills towering up between him and his
goal decided him to wait for the running of the trains next day; and
after an inquiry or two, he left the station on foot for the hotel to
which he had been recommended.

A philosopher, in many regards, Mr. Gryce quieted himself, under the
irritation of this annoyance, with the thought that in this world we do
not always know just what is best for us; and that the few hours of rest
thus forced upon him by the seemingly unfortunate break in his plans
might prove in the end to be the best thing that could happen to him. He
accordingly took a good room, enjoyed a good dinner and then sat down in
the lobby to have an equally good smoke. He chose a chair which gave him
a prospect of the river, and for a long time, while vaguely listening to
the talk about him, he feasted his eyes on the view and allowed some of
its calm to enter his perturbed spirit. But gradually, as he looked and
smoked, he found his attention caught, first by what a man was saying in
his rear, and secondly by something he saw intervening between himself
and the flow of shining river which had hitherto filled his eye.

The sentence which had roused him was one quite foreign to his thoughts
and seemingly of little importance to him or to anyone about. It was in
connection with a factory on the other side of the river, which was
running overtime, and had not help enough to fill its orders.

"It's women we want," he heard shouted out. "Young women, middle-aged
women, any sort of women who are anxious for steady work and good wages."

The emphasis with which this announcement was made perhaps gave it point;
at all events this one brief sentence sank into Mr. Gryce's ear just as
he began to notice a woman who sat with her back to him on the hotel
piazza.

He was not thinking of Madame Duclos at that moment; nor was there the
least thing about this woman to recall his secret quarry to mind. Yet
once his e