u're going to let Pudgy-wudgy----"

"Faugh!" said the lady, and from her radiated the Spanish grandmother
and all the strain implied--blood lust, vengeance! "No, I've come to
tell you that I mean to make that woman's name a scandal and a byword
from end of town to the other. Not _some_ woman's name, but _the_
woman's name!"

"But----"

"How can I do it?" laughed the different Mrs. Boller. "I've found out
who she is!"

CHAPTER XV

Thick and Fast

However faint the appeal it made to Johnson Boller, Anthony's statement
had been the literal truth--his sole concern just now was the shielding
of Mary Dalton.

More and more, these last calmer minutes, the ghastly aspect of the case
as viewed from the woman's side had appealed to him. It is entirely
possible that a little real mental suffering had rendered Anthony Fry
less selfish and more considerate of the rest of the human race--Johnson
Boller always excepted--than he had been for many years.

Whatever the cause, the weight of his own guilt was bearing down harder
and harder, and he was prepared to go to extreme lengths if necessary in
the way of keeping Mary's adventure an eternal secret.

But like many another plan and resolve of this bedeviled night and
morning, the latest had been blasted to flinders!

Beatrice Boller, standing there with Mary's hat still clutched tight and
partly broken, was not smiling the smile of a woman who fancied herself
on the right track. She smiled the smile of one who knew exactly where
she stood. Her lips curled now as she examined the worm that had been
her husband, and she perched on the edge of the center-table.

"Unfortunate, isn't it, that you didn't pick some poor drab from the
streets?" she asked, significantly and triumphantly. "Unfortunate for
you and unfortunate for her!"

"Well, this--well, this----" Johnson Boller tried.

"Don't talk to me, please. I want to talk to you--oh, not for my sake or
for your sake, to be sure. I don't know how much real man may be left in
either of you; not very much, I imagine. But if you do want to save two
innocent women from a good deal of embarrassment, you shall have the
chance."

She laughed again as she watched the effect of the cryptic statement.
She sat down, then, and having opened her hand-bag and drawn therefrom a
little slip of paper, she resumed her inspection of the silent pair.

"You don't understand at all, do you? Well, you shall! Your lady friend
made one m