ad gotten with
Bivens. Could it be possible that Nan was with him to-night?
No--preposterous! He heard the rustle of Mrs. Primrose's dress and saw
the smile of treacherous joy slowly working into position on her
plausible face before she entered the room.

She greeted him with unusual effusion:

"Oh, Jim, this is such a glorious surprise! Nan didn't expect you till
morning and she will be heartbroken to have missed you even for a half
hour. My dear, dear boy, you have no idea how lonely both of us have
been without you the past two weeks."

"You missed me too, Mrs. Primrose?"

"Of course, I missed you, Jim! You've come to be like one of us."

She leaned close and purred the last sentence in the softest feline
accents. Stuart felt his nerves quiver as the imaginary claws sank into
his flesh, but he smiled back his grateful answer.

"It's so nice of you to say that."

"What's more natural? You know I've always loved you next to Nan."

She spoke with such fervour that Stuart shivered. It was sinister. She
evidently felt sure of his ruin. He was too much dazed to find a reply,
and she went on earnestly:

"We needed you here so much to help us fix up. We've had the good luck
to rent our second floor to a young millionaire----"

"Mr. Bivens, yes----"

"Why, how did you know?" she asked with a start.

"Dr. Woodman has just received an important letter from him dated here,
and he asked my advice about it."

"Oh----"

"Where's Nan?" Stuart asked, with sudden anger in spite of his effort
to keep cool.

"Why, she's giving a little box party at the theatre to-night----"

"And our mutual friend, Mr. John C. Calhoun Bivens, is presiding?"

"Why, Jim, how could you be so absurd," she protested indignantly.
"I've been saving money for a month to give Nan this chance to return
some courtesies she has received from rich friends. I need Mr. Bivens's
money to pay the rent of this big house. But any attention on his part
to Nan would be disgusting to me beyond measure."

"Yet he's the sensation in high finance just now," Stuart said, with an
unconscious sneer. "They say he's destined to become a multi-millionaire."

"Come, come, Jim, it's not like you to be nasty to me. You know as well
as I do his origin in North Carolina. His people are the veriest trash.
He was at college with you----"

"And how did you know that?"

"Not from you, of course. You've never mentioned his name in your life.
He told me."

"Oh, Biv