d with a friendly nod of farewell.
He did not see her again that evening, and not long afterward he and the
doctor bade their hostess good-night.

"Not sorry you went, are you, Phil?" asked the doctor, as they walked to
their hotel. "Goodness knows, Arthur and I labored hard enough to get
you there."

"I have always disliked dinner parties." The observant doctor noticed
the wording of the reply and drew his own conclusions.

"Come in and have a smoke with me," said the doctor, as they reached his
room, and he bent over to insert the key. For years it had been Danvers'
habit to drop into the physician's office during the late afternoon or
evening, to talk or smoke in silence, as the case may be. To-night he
followed the doctor, and sat down for a half-hour's chat.

"That was a fetching gown that Mrs. Latimer wore; I don't envy Arthur
the bills!" remarked the astute doctor, as he filled his pipe.

"I didn't notice," was Philip's indifferent reply. "I never know what
women have on."

"And how lovely Miss Blair looked in blue!"

"Soft rose!" came the correction from the man who never noticed.

The doctor's mouth twitched, but he smoked on in silence, and when he
bade Philip good-night he gave him a God-bless-you pat on the shoulder,
which the coming senator from Chouteau interpreted solely as due to his
long friendship.

Danvers was wakeful that night, and a name sang through his drowsy brain
until he roused, impatient.

"It was only her voice that interested me!" he exclaimed aloud. "She's
probably like the rest of them." The nettle of one woman's fickleness
had stung so deeply when he first took to the primrose path of love that
he had never gone farther along the road leading to the solving of
life's enigma, and now the overgrowth of other interests had almost
obliterated the trail.

Although the days at Helena were busy ones for Philip Danvers, he found
time before the convention to make his dinner call at the Latimer's. On
the shaded lawn before the house he found Miss Blair entertaining little
Arthur while she kept watch over the baby asleep in its carriage.

"Mrs. Latimer is away for the afternoon. She will be sorry to have
missed you," exclaimed the girl, as Arthur ran to greet the visitor,
always a favorite.

"You called on Aunt Winnie and me! Didn't you? Didn't you?" chanted the
boy, tugging at the hand of the visitor.

"May I stay?" asked Danvers, smiling at the eager little man. "And how
is the