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 CHAPTER XXXII.

STORMING THE LION'S DEN.

It happened that the very day after Robert's return, he had accepted, for the first time in some months, one of the many invitations which Willard Frost had extended. He had usually declared himself in his notes "Already engaged," or "Sorry illness makes me forego the pleasure, etc."

Designing Frost, therefore, continued his invitations until Milburn, from that fatality which seemingly regulates and controls us, accepted the proffered invitation. Frost's apartments were gorgeous. He had made money as well as married it.

"Gentlemen," he said to his three guests, "let me show you the first success I had," and he pointed to a baby face on the wall.

"That study I sold for two thousand dollars to a man who had lost a child about that age, and he had no picture of it; this he fancied looked very much like her."

"It is a marvelous face—so beautiful. Where did you get your model?" Robert asked.