nte of last
winter, and then--" Miss Palliser hesitated, crossed one knee over the
other, and sat gently swinging her slippered foot and looking at her
nephew.

"Does that conclude the list of the Cardross family?" he asked.

"N-no. There remains the beauty of the family, Shiela." She continued to
survey him with smiling intentness, and went on slowly:

"Shiela Cardross; _the_ girl here. People are quite mad about her, I
assure you. My dear, every man at Palm Beach tags after her; rows of
callow youths sit and gaze at her very footprints in the sand when she
crosses the beach; she turns masculine heads to the verge of permanent
dislocation. No guilty man escapes; even Courtlandt Classon is
meditating treachery to me, and Mr. Cuyp has long been wavering and
Gussie Vetchen too! the wretch!... We poor women try hard to like
her--but, Garry, _is_ it human to love such a girl?"

"It's divine, Constance, so you'll like her."

"Oh, yes; thank you. Well, I do; I don't know her well, but I'm inclined
to like her--in a way.... There's something else, though." She
considered her handsome nephew steadily. "You are to be a guest there
while this work of yours is in hand?"

"Yes--I believe so."

"Then, dear, without the slightest unworthy impulse or the faintest
trace of malice, I wish to put you on your guard. It's horrid, but I
must."

"On my guard!" he repeated.

[Illustration: "So he sat there and told her all about his commission."]

"Yes--forearm you, Garry. Shiela Cardross is a rather bewildering
beauty. She is French convent-bred, clever and cultivated and extremely
talented. Besides that she has every fashionable grace and
accomplishment at the ends of her pretty fingers--and she has a way with
her--a way of looking at you--which is pure murder to the average man.
And beside that she is very simple and sweet to everybody. As an
assassin of hearts she's equipped to slay yours, Garry."

"Well?" he inquired, laughing. And added: "Let her slay. Why not?"

"This, dear. And you who know me will acquit me of any ignoble motive if
I say that she is not your social equal, Garry."

"What! I thought you said--"

"Yes--about the others. But it is not the same with Shiela Cardross.
I--it seems cruel to say it--but it is for your sake--to effectually
forestall any possible accident--that I am going to tell you that this
very lovely girl, Shiela, is an adopted child, not a daughter. That
exceedingly horrid old gossip, Mrs