Before one of a long row of dilapidated tenement houses away over on the East Side of the city, the cabman halted. Leslie had ordered him to drive like the wind, promising double fare; and consequently he had covered the ground in a ridiculously short period of time. To the girl, familiar only with the better localities of the city, the squalor of the place was appalling. It all looked so dark and mysterious that she hesitated for a time before consenting to go in; but at last, overcoming her repugnance, she brought herself to the point where she could make the ascent of the narrow stairway which led to Beekman's room, and she began to climb the stairs, clutching at Ilingsworth as they went. "They said he was always at home," repeated Ilingsworth, knocking gently at the door. A moment more and the door was suddenly thrust open, flooding the hall with light, and a woman, wearing a hat and a long coat, stood in the doorway. It was Madeline Braine. For a second that lapsed into another, the women stood staring at each other, but did not speak. "I was just going home," finally announced Miss Braine. "I----" "It isn't true, then, you don't live here?" faltered Ilingsworth, blurting out things in his excitement that should have been left unsaid. "Were you looking for me?" asked the woman. "I live at...." "For Mr. Beekman," interrupted Leslie, in a low voice. "Can we find him here?" Madeline Braine pressed her hand against her lips. "He's asleep," she whispered. "They're both asleep." "Both!" The exclamation fell from Leslie's lips. "Who else is there here?" proceeded Ilingsworth, without formality. "Nellie, the girl that lives here," she told him in lowered tones. "He takes care of her. She's been sick--he's had to stay up nights and work all day, and it's a pity to wake him up...." "He hasn't retired yet, then?" asked Leslie, inanely, for want of something better to say. But whatever would have been the woman's reply it did not reach her lips, for just at that moment there was a stir, an exclamation from the corner of the room, and a man rising to his full height--a man, tall, strong, bronzed, clad in workman's clothes, cried out sharply: "Who's voice was that? I thought I heard a voice...." The woman waved the two out in the hall, and answered: "No, she hasn't stirred." Beekman stretched his arms, and replied, lowering his voice: "I don't mean Nell. I mean her voice--Leslie's. Who's out there, Miss Braine?" Madeline motioned to Ilingsworth and Leslie to come in, but at the very moment they entered a young voice rose from the next room, and cried in all its weakness: "Madeline! Eliot! Oh, Eliot...." "We've awakened her," said Madeline Braine, contritely, hurrying toward the inner door. But Giles Ilingsworth interrupted her flight and caught her as in a grip of iron. "Just wait a moment, if you please," he said. Again the voice raised itself in supplication. "Madeline! Eliot...."