The Blood Red Dawn

of an early telephone message from Lily Condor. It appeared that Flora Menzies, the young woman who usually accompanied her in her v

in shape again for a good three months. Of course, there isn't anything in it but glory. I'm just

a matter of fact he felt pleased in secret masculine fashion. Chancing to pass Flint's office at the noon hour, he dro

hards, speak of you. Miss Robson went over to Mr. Flint's on that night of the storm and she missed the boat or something-you know! And when she got home next morning she found that her mother had worri

in Claire Robson's misfortune. But he did know from Miss Munch's tone that the unfortunate situation, growing out of the automobile ride from Yolanda to Sausalito, had received due recognition at the hands of those who made a busi

r where he could watch how easily it would adapt itself to its new surroundings. But, having caught the butterfly and held it a brief captive, the dust from its wings still lingered upon the hands that imprisoned it. He had made the mistake of imagining that one is always master of casual incident

chivalry and the sense of loyalty that a man feels to the masculine friends of his youth. In her telephone message Claire had put the matter very casually-the track was washed out and she was wondering whether he

licious as Mrs. Richards's statements regarding the absence of Mrs. Flint, but he was bound to admit that they did nothing to render the situation less innocent; what had particularly annoyed him was the fact that he should have given the matter a second thought. To begin with, it was none of his business and he was not a man who presumed to judge or even speculate on other people's indiscretions. Claire Robson was no sheltered schoolgirl. She was a full-grown woman, in the thick of business life. Such women were not t

was or whether Claire had any hopes for a new position. But Miss Munch's words had been significant. Claire had been dismissed, and Stillman knew enough about present business stagnation to conclude that for the time, at least, Claire Robson faced a bleak outlook. He realized the indelica

sion of a juggler's cabinet. Nothing in this room was ever by any chance what it seemed. Things that looked like doors led nowhere; bits of stationary furniture usually yielded to the slightest pressure and revealed strange sec

d that she could only hope for an indifferent success as a professional. But in the r?le of a gracious amateur she disarmed criticism and forced her way into circles that might otherwise have been at some pains to exclude her. For, if the truth were known, there had been certain phases of Mrs. Condor's earlier life which were rather vaguely, and at the same time aptly, covered by Mrs. Finnegan's term of "gay." A perfectly discreet woman, for in

er afternoon, a yielding, pliant attitude which gave a curious sense of tenacity under the surface. And he thought,

brought an awfully good bottle of Scotch last night. I declare I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have a youngster or two on my staff. Old men are such bores, anyway, and, as

the office," Stillman replied, to

she one of the Sultan's favorites?... I've heard Sawyer Flint was an easy mark if you know how to work him. Miss Robs

er in Mrs. Condor's tone-the sneer of a woman

," Stillman said, quietly. "She lost her job to-day. I'm a little bit worri

e davenport, one slippered foot dangling just above the other. "Why, Ned Stillman, what an old fraud you are! I didn't fancy y

e and slowly drew in her breath. Even after she had released her grasp his flesh still bore the imprint of the rings on her fingers. For a moment he had an impulse

, in spite of the conviction that

oldly, when he had finished,

freshed him. "I'd like to do somethin

in boldly and damn the consequences?... It's just your sort that sends women into the arms of men

lf upon his ability to keep people at arm's-length, it was not precisely agr

roblems are quite too simple. After all, it's largely a question of money.... I

fancy, is to adopt some transparent ruse-some sort of Daddy-Long-Leggish deception." She closed her eyes thoughtfully-"Hiring her as my accompanist, for instance." She rose to dispense Scotch and soda. Stillman sat in thou

mate air of dismissal to Stillman. "It would never do t

," he said, "whether you were serious about ... about hiring Miss Rob

atisfaction. "I've been trying to figure if yo

fingers. He returned their

e heard her calling, half gai

ything rash now....

ivorced from her languishing mood. She was dressed for dinner down-town, and he had to c

on for his visit, although she to

d, finally, "I've concluded

Take me at my word? You're welcome to the suggestion, if t

a conviction that she had been serious and that this attitude was a mere pose. "N

an attempt at facetiousness. "You to do the hiring and ... and yours truly to provide the wherewithal

seemed too absurd to think that he had given an ear to anything so extravagant. She would like to be of se

, she'd resent it all tremendously,

e point of the whole thing," he e

he secret of a woman's meal-ticket is hidden very long, do you? And, besides, you

nough to help out a bit, anywa

ation her opposition had crystallize

n-some day this week. A woman can always get a better side-light on a situation like this. There are so man

spicious at this sudden comp

stammered. "It will be a favo

pted, gaily. "Order me a taxi ... that's a good boy!

e in answer to the lady's telephone message. She had been

Wynne and that dreadful Ffinch-Brown woman. They both have about as much heart as a cast-iron stove. Miss Robson didn't say so in words, but I gathered that she had called both of them off the relief job. I almost chee

Miss Robson

e put it that way on the score of leaving her mother alone nights. But, believe me, that young lady is more calculating than

confidence regarding a personal matter. The trouble was that he had begun the whole affair under the misapprehension that it was a most impersonal thing. He still tried to look at it from that angle, but Lily Condor's manner seemed bent on forcing home the rather disturbing conviction tha

thrust an idle finger into t

or others. I watched you as a young man, and when you married...." His startled look

ay out into the street, how long it would be before Mrs. Condor would a