Again Wilkins's intelligence manifested itself. To be a perfect servant, one's teeth must remain in place and one's face must be free from bruises. Wilkins, after a brief, intent look at Johnson Boller's fists, turned and fled! "So this," said Mrs. Johnson Boller with deadly calm, "is what happens when you think I've gone away!" Her husband turned upon her and threw out his hands. "Beatrice!" he cried. "I swear to you----" "Don't touch me, you filthy creature!" said his Beatrice. "I--I couldn't have thought it. You seemed different from other men!" "This woman----" Johnson Boller floundered, and then caught Anthony's cold eye. It was an amused eye, too, and the sneer was in it; and Johnson Boller pointed at its owner suddenly and said: "If--if there was a woman here, blame him!" Beatrice Boller looked Anthony Fry up and down, and her lips curled. "I do--a little!" she said bitterly. "I've never cared very much for you, Mr. Fry, but--oh, why did you do that? You know as well as I know that Johnson isn't that--that sort of a man! If he wanted to come here and stay with you, couldn't you have been, just for once--_decent_?" "_Madam!_" thundered Anthony Fry, when breath came to him. There was no music in Beatrice's laugh; an ungreased saw goes through hardwood more sweetly. "Spare yourself the effort of that righteous rage," she said. "I know your saintly type of man so well, and I've begged Johnson to have nothing to do with you." "And I give you my word----" Johnson Boller began. "That he brought the woman here?" his wife asked. "Yes!" "And you remained!" finished Johnson Boller's better half. "Where is she?" "She isn't here now!" came almost automatically from Anthony. Once more Beatrice laughed. "Isn't she, though?" said she. "That sort doesn't leave a twenty-dollar hat behind, Mr. Fry--nor a bag worth perhaps five times as much. She had moved in quite cozily, hadn't she? If I hadn't appeared, her trunk would have been along--or perhaps it is here now? If I hadn't----" Mrs. Boller continued, and her voice broke as the unearthly calm splintered and departed. "_Where is she?_" And, her whole mien altering in an instant, Mrs. Boller's hands clenched tightly and her face flamed with outraged fury. "_Where is she?_" Johnson Boller looked around wildly and helplessly. "I tell you, she isn't here!" he began. "You see----" "And I tell you that that's a lie!" said his wife. "I'll find her, and when I _do_ find her, Johnson Boller, some one will pay on the spot for the home I've lost! Do you hear? I'll suffer--suffer for it, perhaps! _But she'll pay!_"