he chin, tilted her face back and kissed
her expertly on the mouth. A rather horrifyingly familiar thing to do,
one might think, to the Venus of Milo, or Frederica, or any one as
simply and grandly beautiful as that. But she seemed to like it.

"No chance for the experiment," said Martin. "I shall never have any
troubles while you're around."

CHAPTER XIV

THE MIRY WAY

Rodney's docility didn't go to the length of the dose of veronal Harriet
had recommended, but it did assent to a program that occupied the
greater part of the day, including a Turkish bath, a good sleep, fresh
clothes and the first decently cooked meal he had had since he'd dined
at the club three days ago. When he turned into his office, about five
o'clock, he was his own man again, perfectly capable of a greeting to
Craig and Miss Beach which consigned the last scene between them here in
the office to oblivion.

His fortitude was put to the test, too, during the first five minutes.
In the stack of correspondence on his desk, to which Miss Beach directed
his attention, was an unopened envelope addressed to him in Rose's
handwriting. He couldn't restrain, of course, a momentary wild hope that
she had written to tell him he was forgiven, or at least to offer him
the chance of asking her forgiveness. But he paused to steel himself
against this hope before looking to see what the thing contained.

It was well he did so, because there was nothing in it but a postal
money-order for a hundred dollars; not an explanatory line of any sort.
Of course the message it carried didn't need writing. It smarted like a
slap across the face. Yet, down underneath the smart, he felt something
that glowed more deeply, a feeling he couldn't have named or recognized,
of pride in her courage.

He was badly in need of something to be proud of, too, for the next two
days were full of humiliations. When he told Harriet and Frederica that
he would see Rose himself, he hadn't any program for carrying out this
intention. He didn't want to wait for her again at the stage door.
There mustn't be anything about their next talk together to remind her
of their last one, and it would be better if she could be assured in
advance that she had nothing to fear from him. So the first thing to do
was to write her a letter that would show her how he felt and how little
he meant to ask. But before he could write the letter, he must learn her
name.

He thought of Jimmy Wallace as a