t families, had moved her family back to
the Villa Ponitowski and had set the stage demurely and convincingly for
the arrival of the trust company's emissary. She impressed Mr. Smith
easily as an intelligent and prudent woman, who was terribly concerned
over Adelle's false step, and quite blameless in the affair.

"Such an unfortunate accident," she explained to him, "from every point
of view:--think of my dear girls, the example to them!... And such
deceit,--one would not have expected it of the girl, I must say!... I
know nothing whatever about the young man, except that he comes from the
West--from California. One of my girls--a daughter of Hermann Paul, the
rich San Francisco railroad man, you know--tells me that this Davis
fellow is of most ordinary people, what is called a 'bounder,' you know.
Adelle naturally did not meet him here, but at the studio of one of her
friends. I knew nothing whatever about it until just before the
elopement--the very day before, in fact, when I surprised them together
in a motor-car. I spoke to the girl that night, of course, kindly but
severely. I had no idea she could do such a thing! It must have been in
her mind a long time. The girl showed great powers of duplicity, all the
trickiness of a parvenue, to be quite frank. I never had a girl of such
low tastes, I may say;--all my girls are from the very best families,
most carefully selected."

Thus Miss Comstock skillfully contrived to throw the responsibility for
Adelle's misstep upon her birth and upon the trust company which had
brought her up. In doing this she but confirmed Mr. Smith in his opinion
that the guardianship of minor girls was not a branch of the business
that the Washington Trust Company should undertake. They lacked the
proper facilities, as he would express it, and it was more of a nuisance
than it was worth. He had had a tempestuous September passage across the
ocean and dreaded the return voyage.

Having won a vantage-point Miss Comstock next proceeded to give a
piquant account of Mr. Ashly Crane's dealings with the girl, who in a
way had been his special charge.

"Fortunately I nipped that affair in the bud," she said, "although, as
it turned out, I suppose he might have been less objectionable than the
fellow she took. I am afraid that Mr. Crane lowered the girl's ideals of
manhood and thus paved the way for her fall," she added gravely.

Mr. Smith listened to the tale of Mr. Crane's futile attempt in risi