yzed; but
before he could speak Bessie turned and saw him.

"Oh, so it's you, Thor. Well, I wish you could have come a minute ago to
hear what I've been saying."

"I've heard it, Mrs. Willoughby--"

"Then I am sure you must agree with me. Or rather, you would if you knew
how things had been managed in Paris eighteen years ago. I've been
trying to tell your dear stepmother that we've been mistaken in her. We
haven't done her justice. We've thought of her as just a sweet and
gentle ladylike person, when all the while she's been a heroine. She's
been colossal--as Clytemnestra was colossal, and Lady Macbeth. She beats
them both; for I don't believe either of them could have watched the
sword of Damocles taking eighteen years to fall on a friend and not have
had nervous prostration--while she's as fresh as ever."

He laid his hand on her arm. "You'll come away now, won't you, Mrs.
Willoughby?" he begged.

She adjusted her furs hurriedly. "All right, Thor. I'll come. I only
want to say one thing more--"

"No, no; please!"

"I will say it," she insisted, as he led her from the room, "because
it'll do Ena good. It's just this," she threw back over her shoulder,
"that I forgive you, Ena. You're so magnificent that I can't nurse a
grudge against you. When a woman has done what you've done she may be
punished by her own conscience--but not by me. I'm lost in admiration
for the scale on which she carries out her crimes."

By the time they were in the porch, with the door closed behind them,
Bessie's excitement subsided suddenly. Her voice became plaintive and
childlike again, as she said, wistfully:

"Oh, Thor, do you think it's all gone?--that we sha'n't get any of it
back? I know we haven't spent it. We _can't_ have spent it."

Since Thor was Thor, there was only one thing for him to say. He needed
no time to reflect or form resolutions. Whatever the cost to him, in
whatever way, he could say nothing else. "You'll get it all back, Mrs.
Willoughby. Don't worry about it any more. Just leave it to me."

But Bessie was not convinced. "I don't see how that's going to be. If
your father says the money is gone, it _is_ gone--whether we've spent it
or not. Trust him!" Nevertheless, she kissed him, saying: "But I don't
blame you, Thor. If there were two like you in the world it would be too
good a place to live in, and Len and Lois think the same."

He got her into the motor and closed the door upon her. Standing on the
doo