nt of no pressing concern.

"She hadn't the reason you're thinking of. I feel very sure of that.
I've asked her mother--and she says she knows it."

Mrs. Masterman was uttering some expression of relief, but Lois could
listen to no more. In her heart there was room for only one
consideration. "Money! Money!" she was saying to herself as she went
down the avenue beneath the leafing elms. "He was going to give
her--that."

But Ena returned to the threshold of the library, where her husband,
standing with his back to the empty fireplace, was meditating moodily.

"Archie," she faltered, "you do think that girl was only seeking
notoriety, don't you?"

He raised his head, which had been hanging pensively. "Certainly. Don't
you?"

She tried to speak with conviction. "Oh yes; of--of course."

"That is," Archie analyzed, "she was going in for cheap tragedy in the
hope that the sensation would reach Claude. That was her game--quite
evidently. Dare say it was a put-up job between her and those two young
men. Took very good care, at any rate, to have 'em 'longside."

"But if Claude should hear of it--"

"Must see that he doesn't. Wiring him to-night to go on to Japan, after
he's seen California. Let him go to India, if he likes--round the world.
Anything to keep him away--and you and I," he added, "had better hook it
till the whole thing blows over."

She looked distressed. "Hook it, Archie?"

"Close the house up and go abroad. Haven't been abroad for three years
now. Little motor trip through England--and back toward the end of the
summer. Fortunately I've sold that confounded property. Good price, too.
Hobson, of Hobson & Davies. Going to build for residence. Takes it from
the expiration of the lease, which is up in July. He'll clear out the
whole gang then, so that by the time we come back they'll be gone. What
do you think? Might do Devonshire and Cornwall--always wanted to take
that trip--with a few weeks in Paris before we come home."

The suggestion of going abroad came as such a pleasing surprise that
Mrs. Masterman slipped into a chair to turn it over in her mind. "Then
Claude _couldn't_ come back, could he?" expressed the first of the
advantages she foresaw. "He'd have nowhere to go."

"Oh, he'll not be in a hurry to do that," Archie said, confidently.

"And I do want some things," she mused further. "I had nothing to wear
for the Darlings' ball--nothing--and you know how long I've worn the
dinner-dresses