cided after
minute investigation here to invest $500,000 in it. Believe we shall make
our fortunes."

He stood an instant with the instrument still in his hand. "Suppose the
damned thing succeeds," he thought, "I shall be worse off than ever."

Then his faith returned to him. "Nothing of Welsley's ever did
succeed," he thought; and with this conclusion he went back to bed and
slept like a child.

CHAPTER VI

With his definite decision and unalterable plan of action, wonderful
peace of mind had come to Riatt. He said to himself that he was now to
have a few weeks--whatever time it should take him to lose his fortune
decently--of being engaged to a woman whom, he now acknowledged, he
passionately loved. He intended to make the best of it.

The next day as he walked up Fifth Avenue on his way to lunch with her,
another inspiration came to him; it was not necessary to lose his money;
spending it would be quite as effective. Acting on this idea, he went
into a celebrated jeweler's shop, and with astonishing celerity chose,
paid for and pocketed a string of brilliant pearls.

It was a present that might have made any man welcome--and Christine had
never been accused of not being able to express herself when she wanted
to--but Christine had already welcomed him for his changed demeanor; his
brilliant smile and unruffled brow told her as soon as she saw him that
he was a very different person from the tortured and irritable creature
who had left her the preceding afternoon.

Never were two people more disposed to find each other and themselves
agreeable, and Riatt was in process of clasping the pearls about
Christine's neck (for she had had some unaccountable difficulty in doing
it for herself) when the drawing-room door opened and Nancy Almar
strolled in.

Her jaw did not actually drop at the scene that met her eyes, for that
did not happen to be her method of expressing surprise, but her manner
conveyed none the less an astonishment not very agreeable.

"Was I mistaken," she said, "in thinking I was to stop and take you to
the Bentons'?"

"Quite right, my dear. Only Max's return has put everything else out
of my head."

"What, you didn't ever expect him to come back?"

"You talk, Nancy, as if you had never heard that we were engaged."

"If you really are, Christine, why are the Linburnes being divorced?"

"Because they loathe each other, I imagine."

"What a changeable creature you are, Christine! I