"Well, she's a girl." He produced this confidence with ponderous solemnity. "She lives across the square from me," he added. "Things brighten," commented Louise, drily. "Go on." "She's mysterious. I don't know who she is, or anything about her. But I know that she's in trouble." "Of course she is! I have never known a mysterious maiden that wasn't," commented the woman of the world. "What's her particular variety of trouble?" Laurie reflected. "That's hard to say," he brought out at last. "But it appears to be mixed up with an offensive person in a crumpled blue suit who answers to the name of Herbert Ransome Shaw. Have you ever heard of him?" Louise wrinkled her fastidious nose. "Never, I'm happy to say. But he doesn't sound attractive. However, tell me all about them. There seems a good chance that they may get you into trouble." "That's what she said." "It's the one gleam of intelligence I see in the situation," commented his candid friend. "Is she pretty?" "As lovely in her way as you are. Think you could help her any?" wheedled Laurie. "I doubt it. I'm too selfish to be bothered with girls who are in trouble. I'll tell you who _can_ help her--Sonya Orleneff." "Of course!" Laurie beamed at her. "Wonder why I didn't think of that." "Probably because it was so obvious. Sonya is in town, as it happens, stopping at the Warwick. She has brought the Infant Samuel to New York to have his adenoids cut out. Samuel made a devastating visit here this morning. He's getting as fat as a little pig, and when he walks he puffs like a worn-out automobile going up a steep grade. He came up my stairs on 'low,' and I'm sure they heard him on the avenue. I almost offered him a glass of gasolene. But he is a lamb," she added reflectively. Oddly enough, Samuel, late of New York's tenements, was another of her favorites. Laurie was following his own thoughts. Sonya was in town! Then, however complicated his problem, it was already as good as solved. "My dinner will be up soon," suggested Louise. "Are you dining with me?" He glanced at his watch, reproachfully shook his head at it, and rose. "Three hours of me are all you can have this time. But I'll probably drop around about dawn to-morrow." "Nice boy!" Her hot hand caught his and held it. "Laurie, if--if--I should send for you suddenly sometime--you'd come and--stand by?" All the gaiety was wiped from his face. His brilliant black eyes, oddly softened, looked into her haughty blue ones with sudden understanding. "You bet I will! Any time, anything! You'll remember that? Send for me as if I were Bob. Perhaps you've forgotten it," he added, more lightly, "but I happen to be your younger brother." For a moment her face twisted. The mask of her arrogance fell from it. "Bob didn't know," she said. "If he had felt the least suspicion he wouldn't have gone so far, or for so long. I thought I had three or four months--" Laurie bent and kissed her cheek.