er work. He spoke pleasantly to the
secretary, and congratulating him on his good fortune in securing such
a master, turned and strolled leisurely back to the ball room.

Not for a moment did he doubt the safety of his act. He was a chemist
and knew the secrets of the laboratory. He would melt the gold into a
single bar and sell the diamonds as he needed them. His only regret was
that he could not have taken the full amount he had demanded of the
little scoundrel.

He found Harriet and they started at once for home.

The dancers who were not staying for the second dinner, about to be
announced at four o'clock, had begun to leave. Friends were helping the
ladies to their cars and carriages, and other friends were labouring
hopefully with those who were not yet convinced of the incapacity to
take care of themselves.

Everywhere the floors were stained with the crushed forms of
butterflies. The wonderful flashing creatures had darted through the
rooms at first with swift whirling circling wings. But in the hot fetid
air one by one they had fallen to the floor crushed into shapeless
masses. Hundreds of them had clung to the leaves of the lilacs, roses
and ferns until they dropped exhausted. Some of them still hung in long
graceful swaying streamers of dazzling colour from the ceilings.

The doctor pointed to them.

"Look, dear, their poor little hearts are counting the seconds that yet
separate them from the mangled bodies of their mates on the floor. So
the hearts of millions of people have been crushed out for the sport of
this evening. It's a funny world, isn't it?"

Harriet looked up quickly into his face with puzzled inquiry.

"Why, Papa, I never heard you talk so strangely. What's the matter?"

The father laughed in the best of spirits.

"Only the fancy of a moment, child. I never felt better. Did you have a
good time?"

The girl's face grew serious as she drew on her wrap and glanced back
toward the great doorway of the ball room.

"Yes, when I could forget the pain in my heart."

She paused and seized his arm with sudden energy.

"You succeeded? It's all right? I'm going abroad at once to study?"

The doctor laughed aloud in a burst of fierce joy.

"Certainly, my dear! Didn't I tell you it would be so?"

The tears sprang into the gentle eyes as she answered gratefully.

"You can't know how happy you've made me."

Bivens, who had heard the doctor's laughter, passed and said with
exaggerated cou