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 delicate question for her, I shall have to meet the two men. Suggest that she invite me to dinner and have them there. You'll be invited, of course. Suppose we make it next Friday. Also, ask her to send me a complete list of the gifts she has received to date, in chronological order."

The next day a letter came from Miss Quarich in reply to Valeska's note. She said that, as her butler was usually away on Fridays, she would prefer to have the dinner on Thursday. "And," she added, "do, please, bring that pretty Miss Wynne, if she will pardon my informality in not calling myself to invite her. But I'm so busy—" etc.

On Thursday evening, therefore, Astro's green car bore the two to Miss Quarich's residence on upper Madison Avenue. They were admitted by the smiling Japanese butler, and, entering the drawing-room, found the two men of the party already waiting.

Thompson, the elder of the two, was a typical man about town, bullet-headed, red-faced, with cropped red mustache, and of a jovial magnetic temperament. Care had scarcely rubbed elbows with Tom Thompson, and he was full of the gossip of the day, cordial, hearty, and evidently innocuous. Gerrish was more suave, with a clever head, egg-shaped, smooth shaved, with a sensitive mouth and smiling eyes.

A moment after, Miss Quarich appeared, attired in the most modern of empire gowns, revealing her slim lithe figure and beautiful neck. She was young and merry, with dark eyes full of coquetry. She welcomed Valeska with a little patronizing snuggle, and held