E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 21904-h.htm or 21904-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/9/0/21904/21904-h/21904-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/9/0/21904/21904-h.zip) THE MILLIONAIRE BABY by ANNA KATHARINE GREEN Author of "The Filigree Ball," "The Leavenworth Case," Etc. A. L. Burt Company, Publishers, New York Copyright 1905 The Bobbs-Merrill Company January Press of Braunworth & Co. Bookbinders and Printers Brooklyn, N. Y. [Illustration: "HUSH! THERE IS NO DOUBT ON THAT TOPIC; THE CHILD IS DEAD. LET THAT BE UNDERSTOOD BETWEEN US." ] CONTENTS I Two Little Shoes II "A Fearsome Man" III A Charming Woman IV Chalk-Marks V The Old House in Yonkers VI Doctor Pool VII "Find the Child!" VIII "Philo! Philo! Philo!" IX The Bungalow X Temptation XI The Secret of the Old Pavilion XII Behind the Wall XIII "We Shall Have to Begin Again" XIV Espionage XV A Phantasm XVI "An All-Conquering Beauty" XVII In the Green Boudoir XVIII "You Look As If--As If--" XIX Frenzy XX "What Do You Know?" XXI Providence XXII On the Second Terrace XXIII A Coral Bead XXIV "Shall I Give Him My Word, Harry?" XXV The Work of an Instant XXVI "He Will Never Forgive" XXVII The Final Struggle THE MILLIONAIRE BABY I TWO LITTLE SHOES The morning of August eighteenth, 190-, was a memorable one to me. For two months I had had a run of bad luck. During that time I had failed to score in at least three affairs of unusual importance, and the result was a decided loss in repute as well as great financial embarrassment. As I had a mother and two sisters to support and knew but one way to do it, I was in a state of profound discouragement. This was before I took up the morning papers. After I had opened and read them, not a man in New York could boast of higher hopes or greater confidence in his power to rise by one bold stroke from threatened bankruptcy to immediate independence. The paragraph which had occasioned this amazing change must have passed under the eyes of many of you. It created a wide-spread excitement at the time and raised in more than one breast the hope of speedy fortune. It was attached to, or rather introduced, the most startling feature of the week, and it ran thus: A FORTUNE FOR A CHILD. _By cable from Southampton._