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Helen, alas! returned uncomforted to her home. She had little hope. Grateful indeed for the true and real consideration George Hierons had shown her, a single conversation with him had yet proved that he, too, like all the members of the group to which he belonged, was an extremist.

At breakfast next morning, John, who was haggard and overstrung from loss of sleep, told his wife casually that George Hierons was coming to see him on business at eleven o'clock. Helen, from a natural desire to avoid a subject that was almost a menace to reason itself, had not mentioned her own visit to Freeman's Hotel. And so far as John knew, she was not even aware that the American was a member of the Council of Seven.

Avoid the subject as she might, Helen could not overcome a devouring curiosity in regard to Hierons' morning call. Was there still hope of a way out of this impasse? At best it could only be tenuous. Knowing her husband for the man he was, she felt sure that