Page 175 (1/2)

"Iotten that dinner!" Dick answered bitterly For a

h, he would not see her while he

readjusted so in himself He felt like a different e when he faced her again quietly To hi, "What would Ellery do?" and on his answer to his own

question he was readjusting his whole life

"We will not go out this evening, Lena," he said "We've come to a

crisis in our affairs more i money?" cried Lena, startled and resentful

Dick looked at her with a very unpleasant smile

"No," he answered "I wonder what you would say if I told you that I was

ruined?"

Lena gasped with horror For the ulf of

poverty--no one knew better than she what that ainst Dick, if he should have plunged her into this,

possessed her; and Dick watched her and read her as he had never done

before

"Will you sit down?" he asked courteously "I want to talk with

you--just by our two selves I haven't lost any money, Lena Let me

relieve your mind of its worst apprehension" Her face smoothed, but

she seated herself quietly, puzzled and foreboding Dick was so