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 nodded toward Sheilah. 'She was at Avidon's this summer, and so was I. You remember Avidon's?'

Cicely nodded.

'Why, she sent me there,' Sheilah announced. 'But for Cicely'

'Oh, I begin to see light,' Roger exclaimed. 'She was rather a mystery to us, you know,' he told Cicely, smiling across at Sheilah fondly—too fondly. 'Well—' he broke off, 'she did you credit, Cicely. She was very popular at Avidon's.'

Cicely's voice had lost its soft mellow note, and her eyes their kindness, when she stepped into her automobile a little later, and told the chauffeur to drive directly home.

Oh, what wouldn't she give to recall that dinner invitation to Roger—to recall the dinner itself? She had lost all pleasure in it now. Oh, why had she allowed Roger Dallinger to come into her life again? He always only hurt her, always only humiljated her, and cast her pride in the dust. Why had she drunk again of his poisonous magic? The first reaction of elation was always followed by disappointment and despair, and worse—jealousy. There is no poison more deadly than jealousy, no emotion more devastating. Several of her women friends were jealous of her, and men used to be. How