"You know, my dear, that is one of the dangers any woman with money is exposed to. Luckily this is your first experience with the mere fortune-hunter, but you will find that there are many men in the world just like this Mr. Ashly Crane, who are incapable of a genuine passion for any woman, and are always looking for a rich wife. No girl wants to think that a man is making love to her because she has money--especially when she has other attractions.... To think that this man, who ought to have shielded you from everything, should be the one to humiliate you so!" She proceeded with an admirable mingling of flattery and friendliness to put Adelle on her guard against the male sex. "At least," she concluded, "a man ought to have something to offer a rich girl,--a name or position. What has that little cad to give you? Social position? A title? Nothing! If a woman must marry, she should get something in the bargain." She succeeded in thoroughly humiliating Adelle for what she had secretly been a little proud of, her first "affair," and easily killed with her contempt any possibility of the girl's yielding to the banker's persistency. "He said he was coming to see me to-morrow," Adelle finally pouted almost tearfully. "He will see _me_ to-morrow instead," Miss Comstock said promptly; "and I don't think he will trouble you again." The encounter on the following morning between the trust officer and Pussy Comstock is not a part of this story. Enough to say that Mr. Crane got his steamer at Southampton and was happily so seasick all the way across that he could not worry over his failure in the gentle art of love-making. He told his friends that he had spent a dull vacation in England, and spoke disparagingly of British institutions and of Europe for Americans generally. When President West inquired about the ward, he spoke very guardedly of Adelle and of Miss Catherine Comstock. He intimated that Miss Clark had developed into an uninteresting and somewhat headstrong young woman, and implied that he had doubts about the influence which her present mentor had upon her character. However, the trust company would soon be absolved from all responsibility for its ward, and it might be as well to let matters rest as they were for the present, if the drafts from Paris did not become too outrageous, which, of course, was exactly what Mr. West and the other officers wished to do--nothing.