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Wordling was fully equipped to carry out her ideas. "You did that very well," she said, dropping her eyes before his steady gaze, "for one experienced only with men-matters.

Wordling had nothing to lose, but he caught himself in time. He saw that Bedient had been handled a bit, and had only a vague idea that he was embroiled in a scandal, the sordidness of which was apt to reach every ear but the principals'. At all events, the old Bedient was restored; in fact, if it were possible, he was brightened at one certain angle.

Neither had noticed her come in. Mrs. Wordling turned to greet them. She was looking her best, which was sensational. Bedient went one morning to the old Handel studio in East Fourteenth Street. The Grey One had asked him to come. Bedient liked the Grey One. He could laugh with Mrs.

He saw disturbance ahead bright disturbance but steadily refused to grant it importance. He was sorry for Mrs. Wordling. "Let the Club seethe, if it starts so readily," he observed. The remark astonished his companion, who had concluded he was either bashful to the depths, or some other woman's property, probably Beth Truba's. "But you men have nothing to lose!" she exclaimed.

"David, you were with him those three days, beginning Monday, the first week in June you were with with him ?" "Every minute, Beth " "David, how did Mrs. Wordling know you were going?" "Why, Beth, she didn't. No one knew " "Are you sure? Isn't there some way she could have heard at the Club?" He hesitated. He had caught her eyes. They horrified him.... He remembered. "Why, yes.

It is well both for him and the faithful maiden that he can so forget the past as to take her in his arms and clasp her almost wildly to his heart. But for this, conscious shame would have betrayed his deeply repented perfidy. And here we leave them, reader. "Contentment is better than wealth." So the wordling proved, after a bitter experience which may you be spared!

"He is very brave and evolved," she whispered bitterly, "but the man within him was not to be denied.... Wordling has that.... God, it seems as if there is nothing of that in red-haired Beth Truba!... No, he must run off to the ocean, quite as if he had been a poor, impatient boy, like the Other!" Her face crimsoned.

"David, we had a memorable time last night, you know that," she said. "You know, too, that I have been, and am, friendly to Mrs. Wordling. As the party turned out, I'm interested to know just how you came to choose the guests. We drew rather close together for New Yorkers " "That's a fact." "But the Grey One is engaged to be married. In theory, Kate Wilkes is a man-hater.

"He thought one of her kind would set us all off to advantage. Then, I was painting her poster " "It would have been only a little joke in a man's club, but the Smilax took to it as something looked and yearned for long.... Two things appear funny to me. Mrs. Wordling has lived at the Club part of the year for three years, and yet didn't know the Park was locked at midnight.

And that which he might have taken, and which her training had designed her both to attract and exact, Bedient did not want. All her sighs, soft tones, suddennesses and confidences fell wide; and yet, to Mrs. Wordling, he was too challenging and mysterious for her to be bored an instant. Their talk throughout was trifling and ineffectual, as it had begun. Mrs. Wordling was not Bedient's type.