ill sat. "Dere was dot
morhgige--" he stammered.

"Accepted," Maule shouted, and turned to the clerk. "Look over the
papers, will you? If they are right, get a check ready. As for you, my
slim friend," he said to the German, "remember that business men have
business hours." And laughing as though he had said something
insultingly original, he hurried down the stairs, and jumping into a
hansom, he presently rolled up town.

In a trifle over half an hour he was at Eden's door. "There is no time
like the present," he told himself, as he rang the bell. But when, in
answer to his ring, a servant appeared, he learned that Eden was not at
home.

"Does Mrs. Usselex dine out, do you know?" Maule asked.

"I don't think Mrs. Usselex is coming back, sir," was the answer.

"You mean that Mrs. Usselex will not return until late, I suppose."

To this the man made no reply; he scratched the end of his nose
reflectively. In his face was an expression that arrested Maule's
attention.

"What do you mean?" he asked, a sudden suspicion entering his mind.

But still the man made no answer. He raised his arms, the elbows
crooked, and assumed the appearance of an idiot.

"It is worth five dollars," Maule continued. "Here they are;" and with
that he extended a bill of the nation, which the servant took, and then,
glancing over his shoulder, whispered:

"Mrs. Usselex has gone to her father's, sir. I distrust something's
hup."

"That man ought to be dismissed," Maule decided, as he hurried down the
steps. "I say, cabby," he called to the hansom; "Second Avenue and
Stuyvesant Square."

"Damn it all," he muttered, as he seated himself in the vehicle. "I am
afraid I am late for the ball."

It took the hansom but a few minutes to reach its destination, and
presently the door of Mr. Menemon's house was opened. As Maule entered
he caught the sound of Eden's voice. "I want to see Mrs. Usselex," he
said, and without waiting for a reply, he pushed the portiere aside.

"It is false," he heard Usselex exclaim.

For a second Maule hesitated. He would have preferred to have found Eden
alone. Indeed, the possibility of encountering her husband had not
occurred to him; but he felt that it was too late to recede, and visited
by that prescience which comes to the alert, he divined that the blow
which he intended to strike must be struck then or never. He let the
portiere fall, and taking his courage in both hands, he stepped forward.
As he did