"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Loretta. But I've something to tell you--something you'll be distressed to hear. What you read in the newspaper about Mrs. Wilson's daughter--the Waldos--is true." Then she repeated briefly what she knew, omitting reference to Mrs. Wilson's visit to the office. Loretta listened with parted lips and an expression in her usually matter-of-fact face curiously compounded of solicitude and knowingness, as though commiseration and the glamor of the scandal were contending forces. "I knew it was true; the newspapers wouldn't have printed it unless there'd been something in it. My! but she'll feel bad, won't she?" "It will wound her terribly." "How did your boss find out?" Constance winced. Somehow the epithet jarred worse than usual, and she felt that she could not stand it. The experiences of the evening were on her nerves, though sympathy for Mrs. Wilson had thrust her personal emotions to the back of her mind for more leisurely inspection. "You mustn't call him that, Loretta. It doesn't express him at all." Loretta looked surprised and laughed. "What's the matter? He is your boss, isn't he?" she asserted. "Oh, well--your employer, Mr. Gordon Perry, Esq., counsellor-at-law, if that'll suit you. My! but you're getting red." Constance was annoyed with herself for having protested. Indeed, she was biting her tongue for having brought on the interview. Now that she had told the facts she shrank from further discussion. Yet it was patent that Loretta had every intention of discussing the episode with her. "There's no doubt about the truth of the matter, unfortunately," she said, by way of answer to the original question. Loretta's large eyes began to rove. Then they suddenly fixed Constance with the gleam of a transporting idea. "I'm going to see her, right off--to-morrow, I mean," she added, noting the swift, barometric sign of disapproval which her words evoked, though it was no more than a contraction of the eyelids. But, suspicious as she was, she assumed that the only criticism had been that she was going forthwith.