On the threshold of her door he asked her to let him know when she would sing in Park Lane, and in touching her hand he repeated that she must count on him. With more tenderness in his blue eyes than he was himself aware, he murmured devotedly: “Take care of yourself, won’t you, please?” As Blair passed from the sitting-room into the hall and toward the lift, Mrs. Higgins came out hurriedly from one of the rooms and joined him. “How did you find her, Mr. Blair?” “Awfully seedy, Mrs. Higgins; she needs a lot of care.” “She won’t take it though,” returned the woman. “Just seems to let herself go, not to mind a bit, especially these last weeks. I’m glad you came in; I’ve been hoping you would, sir.” “I’m not any good though, she won’t listen to a word I say.” It seemed to surprise the dressing woman. “I’m sorry to hear it, sir; I thought she would. She talks about you often.” He colored like a school-boy. “Gosh, it’s a shame to have her kill herself for nothing.” Reluctant to talk longer with Mrs. Higgins, he added in spite of himself: “She seems so lonely.” “It’s two weeks now since that human devil went away,” Mrs. Higgins said unexpectedly, looking quietly into the blue eyes of the visitor. “She hasn’t opened one of his letters or his telegrams. She has sold every pin and brooch he ever gave her, scattered the money far and wide. You saw how she went on with Cohen, and her pearls.” Dan heard her as through a dream. Her words gave form and existence to a dreadful thing he had been trying to deny. “Is she hard up now, Mrs. Higgins?” he asked softly. And glancing at him to see just how far she might go, the woman said: “An actress who spends and lives as Miss Lane does is always hard up.” “Could you use money without her knowing about it?” “Lord,” exclaimed the woman, “it wouldn’t be hard, sir! She only knows that there is such a thing as money when the bills come and she hasn’t got a penny. Or when the poor come! She’s got a heart of gold, sir, for everybody that is in need.” He took out of his wallet a wad of notes and put them in Higgins’ hands. “Just pay up some bills on the sly, and don’t you tell her on your life. I don’t want her to be worried.” Explaining with sensitive understanding: “It’s all right, Mrs. Higgins; I’m from her town, you know.” And the woman who admired him and understood him, and whose life had made her keen to read things as they were, said earnestly: “I quite understand how it is, sir. It is just as though it came straight from ’ome. She overdraws her salary months ahead.” “Have you been with Miss Lane long?” “Ever since she toured in Europe, and nobody could serve her without being very fond of her indeed.” Dan put out his big warm hand eagerly. “You’re a corker, Mrs. Higgins.” “I could walk around the world for her, sir.” “Go ahead and do it then,” he smiled, “and I’ll pay for all the boot leather you wear out!”