d her new acquaintance sat
together in the body of the car. Mrs. Herrick's large and rather
new-looking dressing-bag on the floor at their feet.

Toni gave the direction to the openly interested Fletcher, and the car
glided away through the group of loafers hanging round the station
entrance, and settled down into a steady hum on the road leading to the
Hope House.

Toni seized a moment while Mrs. Herrick was busy with the fastening of
her bag to steal a look at her companion; and in that brief glance she
received two distinct impressions--one that Eva Herrick was a bitterly
unhappy woman, the other that she had no intention of allowing other
people to escape from her own aura of bitterness.

In person Mrs. Herrick was short and slight, with a look of finish about
her probably handed down through generations of her Irish ancestors. Her
small features were cut as clearly as a cameo, and her short upper lip,
while giving her an air of pride which was unpleasing, was in itself
beautiful. Her eyes, the big Irish eyes which had first enslaved
Herrick, were lovely in shape and colour, but they were encircled by
disfiguring blue shadows, and the fine skin had a tell-tale pallor which
spoke of long indoor confinement.

Her hair, by nature crisp and golden, looked dull and lifeless in the
shadow of her hat; and over the whole dainty face and figure there was
an indefinable blight, a sort of shadow which dimmed and blurred their
naturally clean and clear contours.

As she removed her gloves to fumble with the lock of her bag. Toni
noticed that the small, well-shaped hands were rough and badly kept; and
Toni's soft heart was wrung by these evidences of a sordid, toilsome
past.

Suddenly Mrs. Herrick sat upright and gazed at Toni with a look which
held something of criticism.

"You live down here I suppose?"

"Yes. We live at Greenriver, about a mile from your bungalow."

"Ah. Been here long?"

"Only a few months."

"I see. You haven't known my husband very long, then?"

"No. He pulled me out of the river one day," said Toni, "and we have
seen him pretty often during the summer."

"Then I suppose you know where I've been?" Her eyes shone maliciously.
"Oh, don't pretend you didn't know. I'm sure my worthy husband must have
told you the whole story."

Toni, scarlet with embarrassment, and wishing from the bottom of her
heart that she had never offered the use of her car, said nothing; and
with a grating little laug