he sloop. Neither of them saw that
Lawford was watching the little group on shore and that when Bane and
the girl turned toward the store the young man looked after them with
gloomy visage.

The girl's replies to Bane's observation were most inconsequential.
Her mind was upon Lawford and his condition. She was personally
uncomfortable, too; for although the sun and wind had dried her hair
and her blouse, beneath the dry skirt her clothing was wet.

As they came to the Shell Road the long, gray roadster Louise had seen
before came down from town. L'Enfant Terrible was at the wheel while
her two older sisters sat in the narrow seat behind. Cecile tossed a
saucy word over her shoulder, indicating Louise and Bane, and her older
sisters smiled superciliously upon the two pedestrians. Louise was too
deeply occupied with thoughts of the injured man to note this by-play.

CHAPTER XVII

THE ODDS AGAINST HIM

"Horrid taste she has, I must say," drawled Marian. Marian was the
eldest of the Tapp girls. To tell the truth (but this is strictly in
confidence and must go no further!) she had been christened Mary Ann
after Israel Tapp's commonplace mother. That, of course, was some time
before I. Tapp, the Salt Water Taffy King, had come into his kingdom
and assumed the robe and scepter of his present financial position.

"Oh!" ejaculated Cecile. "That's Judson Bane, the Broadway star, she's
walking with. I'd like to know him myself."

"You coarse little thing!" drawled Marian.

"And you not out yet!" Prue, the second sister, observed cuttingly.
"You're only a child. I wish you'd learn your place and keep it."

"Oh, fudge!" responded L'Enfant Terrible, not deeply impressed by these
sisterly admonitions.

Marian was twenty-six--two years Lawford's senior. She was a heavy,
lymphatic girl, fast becoming as matronly of figure as her mother. She
still bolstered up her belief that she had matrimonial prospects; but
the men who wanted to marry her she would not have while those she
desired to marry would not have her. Marian Tapp was becoming bored.

Prue was a pretty girl. She was but nineteen. However, she had
likewise assumed a bored air after being in society a single season.

"That big actor man will put poor Fordy's nose out of joint with the
film lady," Prue said. "Look out for that dog, Cis. It's the
Perritons'. If you run over him----"

"Nasty little thing!" grumbled Cecile.

"And the apple of