Barry turned to Mrs. Wilmerding. "It doesn’t matter," he said. "I thought my friend might help, but I can pick him up afterward if it’s necessary." "You might call the club again, Miss Winters," the older woman suggested, "and have them request Mr. Hamersley not to leave until he hears from Mr. Lawrence." When the secretary had departed, she glanced swiftly back to Barry. "You have enough money?" she asked. "Plenty." "Then hurry. Be sure and keep me informed of what you are doing when it’s possible. I trust you to find her to-night." She held out her hand, and Lawrence took it quickly. For an instant they stood looking into one another’s eyes; then the woman threw back her head. "You love my niece," she said rapidly. "You think there are insurmountable barriers between you. I tell you this, Barry Lawrence: The moment you bring Shirley back to me those barriers shall cease to exist. You understand? It shall be as if they had never been." A flood of bright crimson leaped into Barry’s face, and he stared at her, unable to credit his senses. "But that will be—impossible!" he gasped. "I’m almost a—pauper! I have no position; my very name is—tarnished." "Humph!" she exclaimed incredulously. "Tarnished through some fault of yours?" "N-o; but everybody thinks——" Her teeth came together with a click; her eyes were flashing. "Bah!" she retorted impatiently. "Do you suppose for a minute that I care what everybody thinks? I trust my own judgment, and it has never failed. If a man is clean and straight and decent, money isn’t worth that!" She snapped her fingers. "I have more of it than I know what to do with. You understand? Well, go, then—and remember what I’ve said." *CHAPTER XXXVI.* *TAKING UP THE TRAIL.* Dazed, bewildered, his mind in a turmoil of mingled joy and acute anxiety, Lawrence hastened down the steps of Mrs. Wilmerding’s house and across the sidewalk to the waiting taxi. "No. 854 Broadway, and go like the deuce!" he cried out as he leaped inside. The door slammed behind him and the machine leaped forward like a thing alive. Straight down the wide avenue it flew, past marble palaces gleaming with lights, past the park entrance with its guarding statue of golden bronze, past great hotels whose tiers of twinkling windows seemed almost to touch the stars, past shadowy churches, glittering shop windows, and looming skyscrapers stealing slowly northward in that inexorable march of progress. Sitting stiffly upright on the seat within, Lawrence saw nothing save those twin lines of opalescent globes which seemed to converge with such intolerable slowness until at last they came together miles and miles beyond. He knew that they would have to go almost to that point before nearing their destination, and he chafed impatiently at the slightest delay made necessary by traffic regulations.