ew construction company which Cornelius
seems to have told your mother's black girl, Jane. They may be pure
inventions; but if so, they must be his, not hers, although I should
never have thought he would be so reckless as to tell such things to
such a person----" Etc.

John unfolded the fragments of Johanna's letter with a condescending
smile which began to fade before he had read five lines. A chill ran
down his back, and then an angry flush mounted to his brow.

There is a kind of man--Mr. Leggett was such a one, Samson was
another--who will tell his own most valuable or dangerous secrets to any
woman on whose conquest he is bent, if she only knows how to bid for
them. And there are "Delijahs" who will break any confidence and risk
any fortune, nay, their own lives, to show a rival she has been
eclipsed. There are also women, even girls, who are of such pure eyes
they cannot discern obliquity anywhere. And there are others just as
pure--the lily's own heart isn't purer--who, nevertheless--but why waste
time or type. In short, Johanna first, and then Barbara, had seen how
easily Daphne Jane's tittle-tattle might be serious news to John March;
which it certainly was if the dark cloud on his face was a true sign.

He found Fannie on her train and well cared for by Johanna and the
music-teacher. In the silence which promptly followed his greeting,
these two moved aside and Fannie murmured eagerly,

"What on earth's the matter?--Yes, there is, John; something's wrong;
what is it? I saw you slip a letter into your pocket at the door. What
does it mean?"

"Why, Fannie--it means I've got to go straight back to Suez."

She made a rapturous gesture. "And you're going on this train?" she
whispered.

"No."

"Now, why not? John, you're foolish!--or else you think I am. You
mustn't! You must go on this train. John, I--I want you to." She smiled
up at his troubled gaze.

"Johanna," he said, and beckoned the maid a step aside. "Miss Barb has
sent me that part of your letter to her that tells about the
construction company."

"Yaas, seh," murmured Johanna. Her heart throbbed.

"You say, there, that Cornelius says its officers are mere tools in the
power of men who have put them there; that Gamble's behind Crickwater,
Bulger's behind Mattox, and he, Leggett, is behind Pettigrew--yes--don't
interrupt, there isn't time--and that Colonel Proudfit got the money to
buy stock enough to elect himself president, by persuading hi