Mr. Belcher followed her. His hand lightly touched her waist, and she struck it down, as if her own were the velvet paw of a lynx. "You startled me so!" she said. "Are you always to be startled so easily?" "Here? yes." "Everywhere?" "Yes. Perhaps so." "Thank you." "For what?" "For the perhaps." "You are easily pleased and grateful for nothing; and, now, tell me who lives opposite to you?" "A lawyer by the name of James Balfour." "James Balfour? Why, he's one of my old flames. He ought to have been here to-day. Perhaps he'll be in this evening." "Not he." "Why?" "He has the honor to be an enemy of mine, and knows that I would rather choke him than eat my dinner." "You men are such savages; but aren't those nice boys on the steps?" "I happen to know one of them, and I should like to know why he is there, and how he came there. Between you and me, now--strictly between you and me--that boy is the only person that stands between me and--and--a pile of money." "Is it possible? Which one, now?" "The larger." "But, isn't he lovely?" "He's a Sevenoaks pauper." "You astonish me." "I tell you the truth, and Balfour has managed, in some way, to get hold of him, and means to make money out of me by it. I know men. You can't tell me anything about men; and my excellent neighbor will have his hands full, whenever he sees fit to undertake his job." "Tell me all about it now," said Mrs. Dillingham, her eyes alight with genuine interest. "Not now, but I'll tell you what I would like to have you do. You have a way of making boys love you, and men too--for that matter--and precious little do they get for it." "Candid and complimentary," she sighed. "Well, I've seen you manage with my boys, and I would like to have you try it with him. Meet him in the street, manage to speak to him, get him into your house, make him love you. You can do it. You are bold enough, ingenious enough, and subtle enough to do anything of that kind you will undertake. Some time, if you have him under your influence, you may be of use to me. Some time, he may be glad to hide in your house. No harm can come to you in making his acquaintance." "Do you know that you are talking very strangely to me?" "No. I'm talking business. Is that a strange thing to a woman?" Mrs. Dillingham made no reply, but stood and watched the boys, as they ran up and down the steps in play, with a smile of sympathy upon her face, and genuine admiration of the graceful motions and handsome face and figure of the lad of whom Mr. Belcher had been talking. Her curiosity was piqued, her love of intrigue was appealed to, and she determined to do, at the first convenient opportunity, what Mr. Belcher desired her to do.