idential discourse, he
paused on the brink of disclosure to say: "It's as well I saved that
Ming from the ruins."

"What ruins?" she exclaimed, her startled look giving him the full
benefit of the effect he was seeking to produce.

He addressed himself deliberately to the selecting and lighting of a
cigarette. "Truscomb is down and out--resigned, 'the wise it call.' And
the alterations at Westmore are going to cost a great deal more than my
experienced son-in-law expected. This is Westy's morning budget--he and
Amherst had it out last night. I tell my poor girl that at least she'll
lose nothing when the _bibelots_ I've bought for her go up the spout."

Mrs. Ansell received this with a troubled countenance. "What has become
of Bessy? I've not seen her since luncheon."

"No. She and Blanche Carbury have motored over to dine with the Nick
Ledgers at Islip."

"Did you see her before she left?"

"For a moment, but she said very little. Westy tells me that Amherst
hints at leasing the New York house. One can understand that she's left
speechless."

Mrs. Ansell, at this, sat bolt upright. "The New York house?" But she
broke off to add, with seeming irrelevance: "If you knew how I detest
Blanche Carbury!"

Mr. Langhope made a gesture of semi-acquiescence. "She is not the friend
I should have chosen for Bessy--but we know that Providence makes use of
strange instruments."

"Providence and Blanche Carbury?" She stared at him. "Ah, you are
profoundly corrupt!"

"I have the coarse masculine habit of looking facts in the face.
Woman-like, you prefer to make use of them privately, and cut them when
you meet in public."

"Blanche is not the kind of fact I should care to make use of under any
circumstances whatever!"

"No one asks you to. Simply regard her as a force of nature--let her
alone, and don't put up too many lightning-rods."

She raised her eyes to his face. "Do you really mean that you want Bessy
to get a divorce?"

"Your style is elliptical, dear Maria; but divorce does not frighten me
very much. It has grown almost as painless as modern dentistry."

"It's our odious insensibility that makes it so!"

Mr. Langhope received this with the mildness of suspended judgment. "How
else, then, do you propose that Bessy shall save what is left of her
money?"

"I would rather see her save what is left of her happiness. Bessy will
never be happy in the new way."

"What do you call the new way?"

"Launching one