world, with her beauty and powers of fascination, should tempt him to
make her the mistress of his home and wealth?"

The thought was far from agreeable to him, and yet he could not have told
why.

He could find no fault with Mrs. Montague personally; she was beautiful
in face and figure; she was delightful in manner. Why, then, did he
shrink from the thought of having her come into the family?

Was he jealous? Was he selfish? Did he begrudge his father the
comfort and enjoyment of a more perfect domestic life? Was he
unwilling to have any one come between them? Was he fearful that
his own prospects--his expectations of wealth--would be affected
by such a union?

All these questions darted through his mind, and he felt shamed and
humiliated by them. He could not analyze his feelings; he only knew that
the thought was not pleasant to him.

Mr. Palmer soon espied his son, and leaning back in his chair, asked,
with his usual genial smile:

"Well, Ray, who have you for a companion?"

"Miss Grace Merrill," he briefly responded.

"Ah! a pleasant girl; but allow me to make you acquainted with your
left-hand neighbor also; Mrs. Montague, my son, Mr. Raymond Palmer."

Mrs. Montague turned to the young man with her most brilliant smile,
though a gleam of amusement illuminated her lovely eyes, as she remarked
the conscious flush upon the elder gentleman's face, as he performed the
ceremony of introduction.

"I am delighted to meet you, Mr. Palmer," she said: "but I could hardly
believe that you were the son when your father pointed you out to me."

Ray could not have been ungracious beneath the charm of her manner, even
had he been naturally so, and he soon found himself disarmed of all his
disagreeable reflections and basking with delight in the sunshine of her
presence, her bright wit and repartee, and her sweet, rippling laugh. By
the time supper was over it would have been difficult to tell who was
the more ardent admirer of the fascinating widow--the father or the son.

Later in the evening she ran across him again by accident(?), and another
half-hour spent in her society completed the glamour which she had thrown
around him at supper, and, in spite of his assertion to the contrary, it
really seemed as if Raymond Palmer was likely to help swell the "list of
fools" who blindly worshiped at her shrine.

CHAPTER XIV.

LOUIS HAMBLIN IS INTERESTED IN MONA.

Mrs. Richmond Montague had a purpose in honor