had been but a pretender, and it did his heart good to share his
victory with the one woman who could understand. She knew all his ways
now, his swift impulsive hatreds and his equally impulsive affections;
and she knew, as a woman, just when to oppose him and when to lead him
on. She knew him, one might say, almost too well for her success; for
Rimrock was swayed more by his heart than his head, and at times she
seemed a little cold. There was a hard, worldly look that came over
her at times, a sly, calculating look that chilled him when he might
have told everything he knew. Yet it may easily be that he told her
enough, and more than she needed to know.

In some curious way that Rimrock could never fathom, Mrs. Hardesty was
interested in stocks. She never explained it, but her visits to the
Waldorf had something to do with trades. Whether she bought or sold,
gathered tips or purveyed them or simply guarded her own investments
was a mystery that he never solved; but she knew many people and, in
some way not specified, she profited by their acquaintance. She was an
elusive woman, like another that he knew; but at times she startled
him, too. Those times were mostly on the rare occasions when she
invited him to supper at her rooms. These were at the St. Cyngia, not
far from the Waldorf, a full suite with two servants to attend.

On his first formal call Rimrock had been taken aback by the wealth and
luxury displayed. There were rare French tapestries and soft Persian
rugs that seemed to merge into the furniture of the rooms and at his
very first dinner she had poured out the wine until even his strong
head began to swim. It was a new world to him and a new kind of
woman--with the intellect and, yes, the moral standards of a man. She
was dainty and feminine, and with a dark type of beauty that went to
his head worse than wine, but with it all she had a stockbroker's
information and smoked and drank like a man. But then, as she said,
all the women smoked now; and as far as he could judge, it was so. The
women they saw in the gay all-night restaurants or after the theater in
cabarets, all beautifully gowned and apparently with their husbands,
drank and smoked the same as the men.

But the thing that startled Rimrock and made him uneasy was the way she
had when they were alone. After the dinner was over, in her luxurious
apartments, when the servant had left them alone, as they sat together
across the tabl