"Very well, then! Now, listen, lamb, you and I are going to skip and skip at once. I'm done up. A change is all that will save me--and you've got to go with me!" "Yes, yes, Pat!" "Why, child, a step on the stairs is giving us electric shocks. This lease is up in October. I'll telegraph Syl to-day. She can make her own arrangements after that--we'll leave things safe here and get out to-morrow!" Suddenly Joan got up and threw her hands over her head. "Thank heaven!" was what she cried aloud. There was much rush and flurry after that, and in the excitement the nervous tension relaxed. A note, a most bewildering one, was posted to Elspeth Gordon. It came at a moment when Miss Gordon greatly needed Joan and was most annoyed at her non-appearance. It simply stated: Something has happened--I'm going at once to Chicago with Pat. Now as Patricia had been an unknown quantity to Miss Gordon--her relations with Joan being purely those of business--she raised her brows with all the inherited conservatism of her churchly ancestors and steeled her heart--as they often had. "Temperamental!" sniffed Miss Gordon, "utterly lacking in honour. Just as I might have expected. A poor prospect for--Pat! I do not envy the gentleman." Miss Gordon had contempt instead of passion, but her resentment was none the less. And it was at high tide when Raymond came in at four-thirty for a cup of tea and what comfort he could obtain by seeing how Joan had survived the storm. He was met by blank absence and a secret and unchristian desire on Miss Gordon's part to hurt Joan. Miss Gordon had not been entirely unobservant of all that had been going on. She had had her qualms, but business must be business, and so long as Joan did not interfere with that she had not felt called upon to remonstrate with her on her growing friendliness with the protege of Mrs. Tweksbury. But now things were changed and by Joan's own bad behaviour. Raymond looked sadly in need of tea and every other comfort available--he was positively haggard. While he sipped his tea he was watching, watching. So was Miss Gordon. Finally, he could stand it no longer and he spoke to her as she was passing. "Your little sibyl--she is not here? On a vacation, I suppose?" This was futile and cheap and Raymond felt that he flushed. Miss Gordon poised for action. Her face grew grave and hard--she believed she was quite within her just rights when she sought to protect this very handsome and worth-while young man. She really should have done it before! She was convinced of that now. "My assistant," she said, "has left without giving the usual notice. She has left me in a most embarrassing position but I suppose she felt her own personal affairs were paramount. "I--I think she has made a hasty marriage." On the whole, this seemed more kind than Joan deserved. "A--what?" Raymond almost forgot himself. "A--what--did you say?"