Sands' French maid, you might
give her by hand, if you're going to Newport to-day," she said, with a
grudging air. "It will be quicker than posting." Anna Schultz slipped
the envelope into Ellen's hand, and turned away without waiting for an
answer.

Having telephoned to the jewellers where she was employed, Ellen decided
to string the pearls at home. She dared not dash off to Newport without
seeing her mother, and arranging with a neighbour to stop in the house
while she was gone. On second thoughts, she told herself that, for Mrs.
Sands' own sake, it might be best not to risk a reassuring message of
any sort in advance. Someone else might happen to receive it! She
determined simply to work as fast as possible, and take the first train
she could catch for Newport, with the restrung rope of pearls.

* * * * *

Beverley dreaded the night of the dance more even than she had dreaded
her mission, nearly a year ago, in Albuquerque.

It seemed very long since she had been radiantly happy in the thought of
this glorified cottage at Newport--"Gulls' Rest"--Roger's present to
her. She hated it now, and everything associated with it; the fuss of
settling into the place, in a foolish hurry, though the Newport season
had not yet begun: Roger's determination to begin with a house-party and
a dance; his civil, quiet coldness to her; the strange look she caught
in his eyes at times; the mystery of Clo's silence, which deepened day
by day; fear of reprisals for loss of the papers; these things seemed
harder to bear in Newport than at home in New York. Often Beverley
wondered how long she would be sane.

The Sands had brought with them a couple of friends: two others had
joined them the day after, and half a dozen more had come since. Roger
had engaged all the rooms in a small but delightful hotel for extra
guests who would arrive for the dance and stay the night; and, in
advance of the season as the house-warming was, word had gone out that
the entertainment would be worth a long journey. The favours for the
cotillon were said to have cost ten thousand dollars; and there was to
be a "surprise" of some sort. Perhaps this was the reason why Mrs. Heron
changed her mind, and John Heron wired to Roger that he and his wife
would be pleased to come on from Narragansett, where they were spending
a weekend for Heron's health.

The invitation had been sent to the Herons by Roger's firmly expressed
wish, but