yl will make good. That kind
does. It is such fools as you and I who fail because we have imagination
and find ourselves at the crucial moment in the other fellow's shoes."

"Oh, Pat!" It was all that Joan could think of saying.

Patricia was rushing on.

"Very well, then! Now, listen, lamb, you and I are going to skip and
skip at once. I'm done up. A change is all that will save me--and you've
got to go with me!"

"Yes, yes, Pat!"

"Why, child, a step on the stairs is giving us electric shocks. This
lease is up in October. I'll telegraph Syl to-day. She can make her own
arrangements after that--we'll leave things safe here and get out
to-morrow!"

Suddenly Joan got up and threw her hands over her head.

"Thank heaven!" was what she cried aloud.

There was much rush and flurry after that, and in the excitement the
nervous tension relaxed.

A note, a most bewildering one, was posted to Elspeth Gordon. It came at
a moment when Miss Gordon greatly needed Joan and was most annoyed at
her non-appearance. It simply stated:

Something has happened--I'm going at once to Chicago with Pat.

Now as Patricia had been an unknown quantity to Miss Gordon--her
relations with Joan being purely those of business--she raised her brows
with all the inherited conservatism of her churchly ancestors and
steeled her heart--as they often had.

"Temperamental!" sniffed Miss Gordon, "utterly lacking in honour. Just
as I might have expected. A poor prospect for--Pat! I do not envy the
gentleman."

Miss Gordon had contempt instead of passion, but her resentment was none
the less.

And it was at high tide when Raymond came in at four-thirty for a cup of
tea and what comfort he could obtain by seeing how Joan had survived the
storm. He was met by blank absence and a secret and unchristian desire
on Miss Gordon's part to hurt Joan.

Miss Gordon had not been entirely unobservant of all that had been going
on. She had had her qualms, but business must be business, and so long
as Joan did not interfere with that she had not felt called upon to
remonstrate with her on her growing friendliness with the protege of
Mrs. Tweksbury.

But now things were changed and by Joan's own bad behaviour.

Raymond looked sadly in need of tea and every other comfort
available--he was positively haggard.

While he sipped his tea he was watching, watching. So was Miss Gordon.
Finally, he could stand it no longer and he spoke to her as she was
pas