She stood at the entrance to the music-room until she heard the hall-door close. Then she turned, and seated herself at the piano. It was here that Percy-Bartlett found her, idly weaving strange melodies as the night grew old. “You look pale and tired, dear,” he said gently, as he bent and kissed her colorless cheek. “I did not think that you would wait up.” “Is it late?” she asked wearily. “I had lost all track of time.” “I shall be very glad,” remarked her husband, seating himself and lighting a cigar, “when my affairs and the nation’s are so arranged that I won’t be obliged to talk business at night. Has no one been in, Harriet?” “Yes,” she answered in a careless tone, and striking a few soft chords on the instrument; “Mr. Stoughton called, and stayed an hour or so.” Percy-Bartlett flicked the ashes from his cigar impatiently. He was silent for some time, firmly suppressing any feeling of annoyance that her words had caused. “You find the boy interesting?” he asked coldly. She looked at him calmly an instant, and then said indifferently,-- “Well--I prefer him to solitude, at least.” Then she arose and said “good-night,” leaving Percy-Bartlett to such comfort as he could derive from his thoughts and his tobacco. CHAPTER XVI. It was Saturday night at La Ria’s. John Fenton and Richard Stoughton were seated side by side near one end of the room, awaiting with true La Rian patience the coming of the soup. No one who is in a hurry ever goes to La Ria’s on Saturday night. Impatience is sacrilege in that Bohemian republic that lies under the sidewalk on a down-town street, and draws into its charming boundaries many of the brightest men and most attractive women in the city. La Ria’s is both a pleasure and a protest. The pleasure is on the surface, the protest is underneath. The former is what the true La Rian feels, the latter is what he thinks. His presence on Saturday evening in that famous restaurant proves his unwillingness to permit the New World’s metropolis to become nothing but a colorless aggregation of very wealthy and very poor citizens. La Ria’s furnishes an outlet both to the rich and poor for the inherent fondness in men and women for the picturesque and unconventional.