he took Eveline to the Casino. Pussy must have been
mistaken. Miss Comstock did not press the point, but Irene Paul looked
at Adelle and smiled wickedly. Adelle knew that she had been betrayed
and her heart sank. Presently Miss Comstock began to talk about the
red-haired artist who was living in a picturesque cottage out on the
Pluydell road. A very ordinary young American, she observed cuttingly.
Had the girls seen him sketching? Adelle knew that the blood was
mounting to her pale face, and she bent her head over her food. The end
had come.

That evening they went to the Casino to hear the music, and by chance
Archie was there, too, and threw self-conscious glances towards their
table. Between the soothing strains of Franz Lehr, Pussy whispered into
Adelle's ear,--

"Why don't you bow to your young friend? He looks as if he wanted to
join us."

Adelle gazed at her tormentor pitifully, but said nothing. The rest of
the evening she sat in cold misery trying to think what might happen,
resolved that in any case the worst should not happen: she would not
lose her Archie. She returned to the villa in dumb pain to await in her
room the expected visit. She did not even undress, preferring to be
ready for instant action. Soon there was a knock and Pussy entered. She
was in her dressing-gown and looked formidable and unlovely to the girl.

"Adelle," she said with a sneer, sitting down before the fire, "I
thought you knew too much to do this sort of thing."

Adelle was silent.

"And such a common bounder, too!"

It was Irene Paul's opprobrious epithet, which Adelle was beginning to
comprehend. She winced, but made no reply.

"You might easily get yourself into serious trouble, my dear, with a man
like that."

Adelle cowered under the stings of her lash and said nothing.

"I shall write the young man to-morrow that if he wants to see you he
had better pay his visits here," she said tolerantly. "This is your
house--you can see him here, you know. There are ways and ways of doing
such things, my dear."

With a yawn and a hateful smile Pussy departed.

It was over, and she was alive. At first Adelle felt relieved until she
pondered what it meant. Archie would be exposed to the keen shafts of
Pussy's contempt and to the girls' titters and snubs. And probably there
would be no chance at all for the kissing and all the rest. It was
Pussy's clever way of effectually disposing of Archie. She understood
that.

Adelle sta