o him."

"What are you doing? Where are you staying? How long are you going to be
in town?" demanded Mrs. Lancaster, turning to Keith.

"Mining.--At the Brunswick.--Only a day or two," said Keith, laughing.

"Mining? Gold-mining?"

"No; not yet."

"Where?"

"Down South at a place called New Leeds. It's near the place where I
used to teach. It's a great city. Why, we think New York is jealous
of us."

"Oh, I know about that. A friend of mine put a little money down there
for me. You know him? Ferdy Wickersham?"

"Yes, I know him."

"Most of us know him," observed Mr. Stirling, turning his eyes on Keith.

"Of course, you must know him. Are you in with him? He tells me that
they own pretty much everything that is good in that region. They are
about to open a new mine that is to exceed anything ever known. Ferdy
tells me I am good for I don't know how much. The stock is to be put on
the exchange in a little while, and I got in on the ground-floor. That's
what they call it--the lowest floor of all, you know.

"Yes; some people call it the ground-floor," said Keith, wishing to
change the subject.

"You know there may be a cellar under a ground-floor," observed Mr.
Stirling, demurely.

Keith looked at him, and their eyes met.

Fortunately, perhaps, for Keith, some one came up just then and claimed
a dance with Mrs. Lancaster. She moved away, and then turned back.

"I shall see you again?"

"Yes. Why, I hope so-certainly."

She stopped and looked at him.

"When are you going away?"

"Why, I don't exactly know. Very soon. Perhaps, in a day or two."

"Well, won't you come to see us? Here, I will give you my address. Have
you a card?" She took the pencil he offered her and wrote her number on
it. "Come some afternoon--about six; Mr. Lancaster is always in then,"
she said sedately. "I am sure you will like each other." Keith bowed.

She floated off smiling. What she had said to Mrs. Wentworth occurred to
her.

"Yes; he looks like a man." She became conscious that her companion was
asking a question.

"What is the matter with you?" he said. "I have asked you three times
who that man was, and you have not said a word."

"Oh, I beg your pardon. Mr. Keith, an old friend of mine," she said, and
changed the subject.

As to her old friend, he was watching her as she danced, winding in and
out among the intervening couples. He wondered that he could ever have
thought that a creature like that could care fo