chair thrust his hand into his trousers' pocket.

"So bad as that, is it?" he remarked. "So bad as that, eh?"

"It is very bad indeed," she answered, looking at him quietly, "or you
know that I should not have come to you."

Mr. Cruxhall smiled.

"I remember the last time we talked together," he said, "we didn't
get on very well. Too high and mighty in those days, weren't you,
Miss Beatrice? Wouldn't have anything to say to a bad lot like Anthony
Cruxhall. You're having to come to it, eh?"

She began to tremble again, but she held herself in.

"I must live," she murmured. "Give me a little money and let me go
away."

He laughed.

"Oh, I'll do better than that for you," he answered, thrusting his hand
into his waistcoat pocket and drawing out a pile of dollar bills. "Let's
look at you. Gee whiz! Yes, you're shabby, aren't you? Take this," he
went on, slamming some notes down before her. "Go and get yourself a
new frock and a hat fit to wear, and meet me at the Madison Square roof
garden at eight o'clock. We'll have some dinner and I guess we can fix
matters up."

Then he smiled at her again, and Beatrice, whose hand was already upon
the bills, suddenly felt her knees shake. A great black horror was upon
her. She turned and fled out of the room, past the astonished clerk,
into the lift, and was downstairs on the main floor before she
remembered where she was, what she had done. The clerk, after gazing at
her retreating form, hurried into the inner office.

"Young woman hasn't bolted with anything, eh?" he asked.

Mr. Cruxhall smiled wickedly.

"Why, no," he replied, "I guess she'll come back!"

Tavernake left the meeting on that same afternoon with his future
practically assured for life. He had been appointed surveyor to the
company at a salary of ten thousand dollars a year, and the mine in
which his savings were invested was likely to return him his small
capital a hundredfold. Very kind things had been said of him and to him.

Pritchard and he had left the place together. When they had reached the
street, they paused for a moment.

"I am going to make a call near here," Pritchard said. "Don't forget
that we are dining together, unless you find something better to do,
and in the meantime"--he took a card from his pocket and handed it to
Tavernake--"I don't know whether I am a fool or not to give you this,"
he added. "However, there it is. Do as you choose about it."

He walked away a little abruptly