n
frequently in her house. They had taken long drives together in the
Park. Mr. Belcher felt that there was a peculiar intimacy between the
two, yet not one satisfactory word had he ever heard from the lady about
her new pet. He had become conscious, too, of a certain change in her.
She had been less in society, was more quiet than formerly, and more
reticent in his presence, though she had never repulsed him. He had
caught fewer glimpses of that side of her nature and character which he
had once believed was sympathetic with his own. Misled by his own vanity
into the constant belief that she was seriously in love with himself, he
was determined to utilize her passion for his own purposes. If she would
not give kisses, she should give confidence.

"Mrs. Dillingham," he said, "I have been waiting to hear something about
your pauper _protege_, and I have come to-night to find out what you
know about him and his father."

"If I knew of anything that would be of real advantage to you, I would
tell you, but I do not," she replied.

"Well, that's an old story. Tell that to the marines. I'm sick of it."

Mrs. Dillingham's face flushed.

"I prefer to judge for myself, if it's all the same to you," pursued the
proprietor. "You've had the boy in your hands for months, and you know
him, through and through, or else you are not the woman I have taken you
for."

"You have taken me for, Mr. Belcher?"

"Nothing offensive. Don't roll up your pretty eyes in that way."

Mrs. Dillingham was getting angry.

"Please don't address me in that way again," she said.

"Well, what the devil have you to do with the boy any way, if you are
not at work for me? That's what I'd like to know."

"I like him, and he is fond of me."

"I don't see how that helps me," responded Mr. Belcher.

"It is enough for me that I enjoy it."

"Oh, it is!"

"Yes, it is," with an emphatic nod of the head.

"Perhaps you think that will go down with me. Perhaps you are not
acquainted with my way of doing business."

"Are you doing business with me, Mr. Belcher? Am I a partner of yours?
If I am, perhaps you will be kind enough to tell me--business-like
enough to tell me--why you wish me to worm secrets out of this boy."

It was Mr. Belcher's turn to color.

"No, I will not. I trust no woman with my affairs. I keep my own
councils."

"Then do your own business," snappishly.

"Mrs. Dillingham, you and I are friends--destined, I trust, to be better