face; her eyes became almost
blank.

"Norman's fortune impaired! I cannot understand it--_he_ told me--Oh,
there must be some mistake!" she broke out vehemently. "You are
deceiving me. No! I don't mean that, of course,--I know you would
not,--but you have been deceived yourself." Her face was a
sudden white.

Keith shook his head. "No!"

"Why, look here. He cannot be hard up. He has kept up my allowance and
met every demand--almost every demand--I have made on him." She was
grasping at straws.

"And Ferdy Wickersham has spent it in Wall Street."

"What! No, he has not! There, at least, you do him an injustice. What he
has got from me he has invested securely. I have all the papers--at
least, some of them."

"How has he invested it?"

"Partly in a mine called the 'Great Gun Mine,' in New Leeds. Partly in
Colorado.--I can help Norman with it." Her face brightened as the
thought came to her.

Keith shook his head.

"The Great Gun Mine is a fraud--at least, it is worthless, not worth
five cents on the dollar of what has been put in it. It was flooded
years ago. Wickersham has used it as a mask for his gambling operations
in Wall Street, but has not put a dollar into it for years; and now he
does not even own it. His creditors have it."

Her face had turned perfectly white.

A look, partly of pity for her, partly of scorn for Wickersham, crossed
Keith's face. He rose and strode up and down the room in perplexity.

"He is a common thief," he said sternly--"beneath contempt!"

His conviction suddenly extended to her. When he looked at her, she
showed in her face that she believed him. Her last prop had fallen. The
calamity had made her quiet.

"What shall I do?" she asked hopelessly.

"You must tell Norman."

"Oh!"

"Make a clean breast of it."

"You do not know Norman! How can I? He would despise me so! You do not
know how proud he is. He--!" Words failed her, and she stared at Keith
helplessly.

"If I do not know Norman, I know no one on earth. Go to him and tell
him everything. It will be the happiest day of his life--your
salvation and his."

"You think so?"

"I know it."

She relapsed into thought, and Keith waited.

"I was to see Fer--Mr. Wickersham to-night," she began presently. "He
asked me to supper to meet some friends--the Count and Countess
Torelli."

Keith smiled. A fine scorn came into his eyes.

"Where does he give the dinner? At what hour?"

She named the place--a fashion