o utter the last words with a splendid air;
then he said sadly:

"I think I should like my tea."

"I'll get it at once," said Pollyooly cheerfully.

She was not long about it. Hilary Vance took the Lump on his knee,
gave him a lump of sugar, poured out the tea, and began to drink it
with an air of gloomy resignation.

Presently he patted the Lump's bright red curls and said:

"Let this be a warning to you, red cherub, never to trust a
woman--never as long as you live."

The Lump grunted peacefully.

"He's too young to understand, or it wouldn't be right to teach him
such a thing as that," said Pollyooly in a tone of disapproval.

"Not right?" cried Hilary Vance stormily. "But you've seen for
yourself! You've seen how that girl led me on to squander the treasure
of a splendid passion on her unresponsive spirit while, all the time,
she was abasing herself before a miserable, preposterous scoundrel like
that ruffian Butterwick."

"He was rather small," said Pollyooly thoughtfully. "But I daresay
he'd make her a good husband. He looked quite respectable."

"A good husband!" cried Hilary Vance with a dreadful sneer.

"But I expect she'll lead him a life. She looked like it," said
Pollyooly, thoughtfully pursuing the subject.

"Serve him right!" cried Hilary Vance with terrible scorn. "He has
learnt her treachery to me; and if he marries her after that, he
deserves all he gets. If she betrays my trust, she'll betray his."

Pollyooly was silent, considering the matter. Then, summing it up, she
said with conviction:

"I don't think she's the kind of girl to trust at all."

"I must have been blind--blind," said Hilary Vance.

Then came the sound of a taxicab drawing up before the house, and then
a knocking at the front door. Pollyooly opened it, and found Mr. James
on the threshold. He looked uncommonly anxious and said quickly:

"I missed him. Has he come back?"

"Yes; he's having his tea."

"And this fellow Butterwick?" said Mr. James.

"Oh, he came; and then, when he found how big Mr. Vance is, he went
away. But he hasn't done with Mr. Vance--not by a long chalk. He told
me to tell him so," said Pollyooly.

"Well, I'm glad they didn't scrap," said Mr. James in a tone of relief.
"If they didn't at once, they're not very likely to later."

"Oh, no: they won't now," said Pollyooly confidently. "You see as soon
as he heard that Mr. Butterwick was her--her fiongsay"--she hesitated
over th