"MY DEAR MR. DODGE,--Kindly inform me whether my father, Mr. Todd, is in the office. If not, where he has gone, and at what hour he is expected back. "Very truly, "GWENDOLEN DE LANCY TODD." In a very few moments she flushed, and bit her lip over the following reply: "Miss Gwendolen de Lancy Todd. "MY DEAR MISS TODD,--Your father, Mr. Todd, is not in this office. I am not at liberty to communicate the name of the place to which he has gone. He expects to return about 2.30 P. M. "Very truly, "T. CARAWAY DODGE." "Pshaw! I might have known it!" said Gwendolen, under her breath, as she tore the note to small pieces. She looked at her watch. "Just one, and he can't get here for an hour and a half. What shall I do until he comes?" As if in answer, the luncheon-bell rang. She moved toward the big dining-room, dreading to see Mrs. Stunt. Yes, she was there, wriggling, smiling, opening her innocent blue eyes, as usual. Gwendolen's greeting was civil, and no more. She sat through the meal in silence, and ate practically nothing. Mrs. Stunt tried a few tactful remarks about the girl's "being in love," as a reason for the lack of appetite. After the unquiet meal, Gwendolen saw, with new dismay, that the ladies were to take possession of the main drawing-room. This deprived her of the solace of her piano. She wandered aimlessly about the big rooms, starting a letter to an American friend, and desisting, after the first page, pulling out bureau drawers, and forgetting why she had opened them, doing, in fact, all those vague, self-irritating things that indicate a perturbed and joyless mind. She longed for intelligent human companionship,--for her father. When dad should come, she told herself, she would lose this restless heart. She longed for him and his counsel with a physical hunger. Her mind veered again and again to Dodge, only to be whirled off fiercely. Mrs. Todd as a confidante was impossible, even had the wily Stunt not claimed her. Secure in the conviction of a commonplace mind, good Mrs. Todd would have rushed at once to the Hagané residence, demanded instant audience of Hagané, and failing in that have hastened to the Cha no yu rooms to rescue her ailing protégé. No, Mrs. Todd, with all her kind heart, could not be trusted!