The sight of Harriet seated on the stoop of the old home by the Square watching a crowd of children play brought a smile back to his haggard face. He waved to her a block away and she sprang to her feet answering with a cry of joy. The startling contrast between the women struck him again. She met him at the corner with outstretched hands. "What a jolly scene, little pal!" he cried. "What's the kid's convention about?" "They've come to honour me with their good wishes on my voyage." "What voyage?" he asked in surprise. "Oh, you didn't know--I've an engagement to sing on the Continent this summer--the news came the day you left. Isn't that fine? I sail next week." A sudden idea struck him. He dropped the bag he was carrying and exclaimed: "By George, it is just the thing!" "What?" she asked with a puzzled look. "Let me go with you, girlie?" "Oh, Jim, if you only would, I'd be in heaven! You have never been across. I'd chaperone you and show you everything you ought to see. Please go! Say you will! You've said you would, and you can't say no--you're going, you're going!" "I will!" he said with decision. "You've booked your passage?" "Yes, but I'll change it to suit you. Oh, goodie, goodie! You're going, you're going! I'm perfectly happy!" He found business which required a week and booked his passage with Harriet's on a Cunarder which sailed in ten days. A week later Nan and Bivens returned to their New York house. The papers were full of stories of his failing health. A sensational evening sheet issued an extra announcing that he was dying. The other papers denied the report as a fake. All reporters were denied admission to the Riverside home, and in consequence the press devoted five times the space to his illness they otherwise would have given. Two days after her arrival Nan telephoned to Stuart. "You must come up to see Cal to-night," she said earnestly, "he is asking for you." "Is he really dangerously ill?" Stuart interrupted. "It's far more serious than the papers suspect. He has had another attack of his old trouble. The doctors say he has a fighting chance--that's all. You'll come?" "Yes, early to-morrow morning. I've an important engagement to-night that will keep me until twelve o'clock. I'm sailing for Europe day after to-morrow." A sudden click at the other end and he was cut off. His experienced ear told him it was not an accident. The sound could only have been made by the person to whom he was talking quickly hanging up the receiver. He waited a moment and called Nan back to the telephone. "You understand, Nan?" "Yes, we were cut off." "Tell him I'll be up early in the morning, by ten o'clock, surely. Good night." The answer was the merest whisper: "Good night." It was just dawn when Stuart's telephone rang and he leaped from bed startled at the unusual call.