THE PEACOCK LIBRARY 
 
 A HOUSETOP CAP 
 
 ||S BY f-. 
 
 ALICE S* WOL 
 
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 U0 PACIFIC A
 
 The Peacock Library 
 
 A House of Cards
 
 A House of Cards 
 
 BY 
 
 ALICE S. WOLF 
 
 CHICAGO 
 STONE & KIMBALL 
 
 M DCCC XCVI
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY 
 STONE AND KIMBALL
 
 TO MY MOTHER
 
 A House of Cards. 
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 IIKER VAN ARSDALE drew a chair 
 within the embrasured club-window, 
 and let his gaze wander out upon the mellow 
 splendor of the night. 
 
 The rooms behind him wore a deserted air. 
 It was the week of the annual shoot of the 
 Country Club at Del Monte, and those mem- 
 bers who were in town had not yet left the 
 dining-tables. 
 
 Van Arsdale had not lingered over the meal : 
 he had chanced to dine with a man who could 
 not forget to remember who he was. 
 
 Presently his solitude was invaded by a man 
 who leaned against the window-frame, smiling 
 down upon him. 
 
 " Poor Van," began the new-comer, " I won- 
 der you can look so cheerful after that irksome
 
 10 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 hour. When I saw you cornered by Ives, I 
 pitied you." 
 
 "That was kind of you, Kendall," com- 
 mented the older man, no trace of sarcasm in 
 his quiet tones. 
 
 " Did you manage to pierce the brazen wall 
 of his ignorance?" asked Kendall, with gentle 
 malice. 
 
 He was a broad-shouldered man, of average 
 height, and the only fault Van Arsdale found 
 with his face was that it was too handsome ; but 
 all of Gregory Kendall's faults were pleasant 
 ones, and his friends willingly adopted an easy 
 attitude toward his shortcomings. 
 
 " I did not try to do so. I found his self- 
 sufficiency refreshing in these days when we 
 are all inclined to thrust the analytical scalpel 
 under our every thought and act." 
 
 "At any rate, you must have been bored." 
 
 "You forget: I am never bored," corrected 
 Van Arsdale. 
 
 "Well, it bores me to dine here," volun- 
 teered Kendall. " I came to-night only be- 
 cause I promised to dine with my father before 
 he starts for Carlsbad. All they do here is to 
 eat and gamble." 
 
 A pause ensued, in which Van Arsdale con-
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. II 
 
 tinued to look across at the shadowy plaza, and 
 Kendall twisted his mustache ruthlessly. At 
 length Van Arsdale spoke ; his eyes were still 
 fixed upon the wavering trees. 
 
 "You were going to speak to me of " 
 
 " Don't be clairvoyant to-night. I shall 
 reach my point soon enough. It would be 
 easier to speak if I did not stand in fear of 
 your verdict. You know you have a truly 
 reprehensible, inconsiderate habit of telling the 
 truth." 
 
 Van Arsdale's acute ears detected the note 
 of nervousness in the light words. 
 
 " I may have an inconvenient love for the 
 truth, but I realize it is much too sacred to be 
 tampered with ordinarily. I indulge in it only 
 on those occasions when, at all hazards, I must 
 be disbelieved. Now that you have warned 
 me, I promise to be discreet. I shall slake 
 your unconquerable thirst for sympathy, and 
 advise only those things I shall see you are 
 determined to do. It is always gratifying to 
 see one's counsel followed." 
 
 To give Kendall an opportunity to collect 
 himself, Van Arsdale had spoken at greater 
 length than was his wont. 
 
 He was an habitually taciturn man ; yet when
 
 12 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 people presumed upon him they were apt to 
 discover that his wit was singularly poignant, 
 though hidden under a quiet exterior : he 
 could utter very disagreeable truths in his 
 calmly courteous way. But he was most trying 
 when he said nothing, merely looking through 
 his companion, at the back of his chair. Men 
 invariably liked him, and thought he might be 
 attractive to women if he only permitted his 
 face to show more interest in them. Women 
 admired him, at a distance generally, for he 
 cared little for their society. His friends were 
 intimate with Van Arsdale ; Van Arsdale was 
 intimate with no one. Gregory Kendall rightly 
 or wrongly imagined himself one of his most 
 intimate friends, and it cost a great deal to be 
 Kendall's friend. He usually opened an ac- 
 count about which there was no reciprocity. 
 
 Van Arsdale, in his position as manager of 
 a large insurance company, had found it possi- 
 ble to assist Kendall in his career of the law, 
 and he became accustomed to helping him in 
 other ways. He had long since discovered 
 that doing a man one kindness leaves you open 
 to his importunities on all occasions, and that 
 gratitude is only "a lively sense of future 
 favors."
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 13 
 
 "Well," commenced Kendall, half-tremu- 
 lously, half-defiantly, " I hope your advice will 
 coincide with my views, for even if it does not, 
 I intend " 
 
 "This is novel," interposed Van Arsdale, 
 throwing his hands about his head. " There is 
 not even a feint of humility about you ; and 
 usually we confessors are beguiled by the out- 
 ward meekness of those who approach us. 
 Proceed with your piquant confidences." 
 
 With most of his little world, Kendall stood 
 in wholesome fear of Van Arsdale's censure. 
 He had always felt proud of the friendship, 
 and now he found it difficult to frame his 
 sentences. 
 
 " I am going to be married," he finally an- 
 nounced, in a tone at once combative and 
 appealing. 
 
 " Yes? " murmured Van Arsdale, his inscru- 
 table face betraying no emotion of any kind. 
 It was a face of which one never gained a clear 
 impression, although the features were sharply 
 cut. A more observant man than Kendall 
 might have noticed that his eyes narrowed 
 unpleasantly, and that his mouth grew a trifle 
 more set and stern. 
 
 "You might say something," broke forth
 
 14 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 Kendall, " instead of looking the embodiment 
 of virtuous disapproval." 
 
 " I really beg pardon. You see I did not 
 know what you expected me to say. It was 
 very remiss, but it is not too late to hope you 
 will know all happiness." He did not unclasp 
 his hands from about his head. "When do 
 you get married? " 
 
 Kendall's handsome face turned a shade 
 whiter. 
 
 " What a fool you make a man look ! Possibly 
 I should have said I intend to get married if 
 Miss Yerrington will have me." 
 
 " Perhaps it would have been a more con- 
 servative measure, if you are not yet en- 
 gaged," assented Van Arsdale, in his unhur- 
 ried tones. 
 
 "I do not know why I am annoying you 
 with the matter, for I think that in my heart 
 I realize she will not have me," proceeded 
 Kendall. "She is a great deal too good for 
 me." 
 
 " Of course," granted Van Arsdale. 
 
 Kendall laughed shortly. "Yes, I suppose 
 they all say that. Well, I am not disheartened, 
 although Loys has been refusing me ever since 
 I was twenty-six, and that was five years ago.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 15 
 
 I tell her that some day she will grow so weary 
 of saying ' No,' that she will change it into a 
 'Yes.'" 
 
 " Did Miss Yerrington go to the Yosemite, as 
 she had planned?" queried Van Arsdale, with 
 a courteous show of interest. 
 
 " If you remember, she said she had little 
 hope of it," prompted Kendall, "and the little 
 she had died an untimely death. She went to 
 the farm, and is passing an interminable vaca- 
 tion." 
 
 " No doubt she will find time for a great 
 deal of writing, and she must need the perfect 
 rest." 
 
 " One would not choose the Yerrington farm 
 as a haven of rest ; and she is nursing her father 
 through a fever. She will return wan and ex- 
 hausted. She is occupied from early morning 
 until late at night, and the hopeless dreariness of 
 the life is maddening to her." 
 
 " I understood that Mr. Yerrington was a 
 man of wealth." 
 
 " His place adjoins ours, so I know the length 
 and breadth of his possessions : the land he 
 owns is worth over one hundred thousand 
 dollars," returned Kendall ; " but of money he 
 has none. Whatever he clears is invested in
 
 l6 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 new purchases of land, so the money Loys 
 sends him every month is more than welcome. 
 I am counting on all this to win for me in the 
 end," he concluded frankly. 
 
 Van Arsdale volunteered no remark. 
 
 "What was your impression of Loys? " 
 
 " That she is not a woman one can sum up 
 and dismiss in an epigram, and I have met her 
 but the once," Van Arsdale reminded. " And 
 perhaps, even were I tempted to tell you what I 
 think of her, I should refrain, for I realize that 
 my opinion must be biased. It is impossible 
 not to be prejudiced against one who unkindly 
 thinks that I remind her of a lead-pencil, with 
 a rubber at the end of it." 
 
 The suspicion of a smile curved his lips. 
 He thought he had never heard a briefer, more 
 exact description of his appearance, and he 
 appreciated the discernment of the woman who 
 had made it. 
 
 Kendall laughingly eyed the long, gaunt 
 figure of his friend. " I should not have re- 
 peated her words; but when you seemed so 
 curious to learn what she had said, and plainly 
 fancied you were to hear some critical analysis 
 of your character, I could not resist the tempta- 
 tion. Besides, I knew it would please your
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. IJ 
 
 sense of humor. You will wish me luck?" he 
 pleaded. 
 
 For the first time Van Arsdale faced him. 
 
 "You love her? " he commenced. 
 
 " I think my life since I have known her will 
 be my best answer," returned Kendall, simply. 
 
 " I believe so too. Then you love her enough 
 to renounce all thought of her as your wife," 
 affirmed Van Arsdale, rising, and placing his 
 hand on his friend's shoulder. 
 
 Kendall shook himself free. "Why don't 
 you say you think me a coward, and be done 
 with it?" he demanded. 
 
 "Because you warned me against such a 
 drastic course," Van Arsdale confessed a trifle 
 wearily, resuming his seat. 
 
 An uncomfortable pause ensued ; then Kendall 
 went on with an unsuccessful effort at easiness : 
 " The members of the Round Table are already 
 talking of the affair they intend to give Yorke. 
 Do you suppose he has left anything for other 
 explorers to discover?" 
 
 "I cannot tell. I am content to know he 
 did not set out on the last voyage of discovery, 
 as was rumored." 
 
 Kendall joined a group of men who had just 
 entered. Some moments later Van Arsdale 
 2
 
 l8 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 recognized him as he boarded a passing cable- 
 car. Van Arsdale continued to sit before the 
 open window some time longer. 
 
 "There is nothing to fear," he ultimately 
 decided. " Kendall himself realizes it is only 
 a forlorn hope. Miss Yerrington is wrapped 
 up in her desire to drink of the enchanted wine 
 of fame she does not think of marriage. If 
 she were to marry him, she would deserve the 
 misery which would surely be hers ; but I fancy 
 she is one of those intense women, with a 
 nascent taste for martyrdom : she would never 
 permit him to suspect her wretchedness. She 
 would be an interesting study. If she loved 
 Kendall, it would be bad enough ; for I imagine 
 she would find it difficult to accept calmly the 
 fact that a man can be only a man. As it is 
 she will not marry him. She has known Ken- 
 dall too many years not to know . And she 
 is a woman with an exaggerated sense of 
 responsibility." 
 
 " I believe," he confided to himself, with a 
 certain amusement at his own folly, " I believe 
 I have been troubling over some one's else 
 affairs."
 
 Chapter II. 
 
 JHE parched ground gaped thirstily under 
 the sullen glare of the sun beating 
 fiercely down from the low-hanging sky. The 
 dense heat of the mid-day seemed only empha- 
 sized by the leafy shadows of the few ross- 
 grown trees which stood in the lately-harvested, 
 out-lying fields. The raucous note of a bel- 
 ligerent cock broke discordantly on the heavy 
 air. 
 
 Andrew Yerrington walked up the gravelled 
 path, noting with vigilant eyes the blistering 
 paint of the farm buildings. He took down the 
 small feather duster which hung beside the 
 house-door, : and waving it 'across his dusty 
 boots, walked into the dining-room. 
 
 The majority of the farm-hands had already 
 eaten, but three or four of them had just 
 entered, and were being served by Laura and 
 Nora Yerrington. 
 
 "W'ar'syer sister?" Yerrington demanded, 
 shortly.
 
 20 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 His daughters looked at each other helplessly, 
 the one relying upon the other to answer. 
 Finally Laura said, "Ma's helping her pack. 
 She says she does n't want any dinner." 
 
 " Yeh tell Loys I don't want no more er her 
 fulishness. She 's ter kum eat her dinnur this 
 instunt." He spoke with the unpleasant delib- 
 eration it sometimes pleased him to assume. 
 It was at those times Andrew Yerrington was 
 most feared. 
 
 He continued to eat on stolidly. Loys Yer- 
 rington was to return to San Francisco that 
 afternoon, and, while he was conscious that he 
 should draw a breath of relief at her departure, 
 he also realized that he should miss her. She 
 added zest to his life. He could remember 
 the time when his wife had been much the 
 same as Loys ; now, with a darkening brow, he 
 characterized her as a poor meek creature, and 
 the other girls were like her. He had bent 
 them to his iron will, and in the end he was 
 displeased with his work. He liked a woman, 
 as well as a horse, to have a little " spirrut." 
 Loys had escaped him. She dared to think 
 for herself, and even sat in judgment on him. 
 
 He had offered his daughters the opportunity 
 of a good education, but Loys was the only one
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 21 
 
 who had availed herself of it. He had stormed 
 when Gregory Kendall had secured Loys the 
 position as teacher of English and history in 
 Miss Eastlake's institute, but when her will had 
 overridden his, he had stipulated that her 
 salary should be forwarded to him each month. 
 He felt he had a right to it ; but sometimes, 
 when he thought of the meagre " ' lowunce " 
 he made her, a swarthy flush flooded his 
 cheeks, and he muttered, " Her spirrut 'ull hev 
 ter be broke. She kin git more w'en- she begs 
 furrit." 
 
 Loys never " got more." She never begged 
 for anything. 
 
 Mrs. Yerrington entered the room hurriedly. 
 She glanced appealingly toward her husband, 
 saying, " She 's comin', Andrew." 
 
 She nervously served herself, and endeavored 
 to eat. 
 
 " Yeh 've ben doin' too much fer Loys, ma," 
 remarked Yerrington, looking her over not 
 unkindly, the while stroking the fringe of gray 
 whisker which adorned his pointed chin. 
 
 " I could n't do anything for her. She was 
 helping in the kitchen all morning, and I was 
 afraid she 'd be late." 
 
 " Yeh don't need to be afeared fer Loys."
 
 22 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 Loys Yerrington paused on the threshold. 
 The stifling heat was rendered the more intol- 
 erable by the steam and the odors of the food. 
 The family was now alone, and the two girls 
 had sat down to eat without removing the 
 empty dishes with which the table was laden. 
 
 Loys already had on her travelling-gown, 
 which clung admirably to her perfectly-rounded 
 figure. The heat had added to the creamy 
 pallor of her face, and lent a touch of languor 
 to her movements. She walked well, a rare 
 accomplishment. She appeared taller than she 
 really was, which, perhaps, was due as much to 
 her mode of arranging her wealth of hair as to 
 her carriage. 
 
 "Yere's a chair," remarked Yerrington. 
 "Tek sum berries, ef yeh don't hanker arter 
 anythun more fillin'. It 's most too hot ter eat, 
 nohow. But yeh '11 go all ter pieces ef yeh 
 don't swaller sumthun." 
 
 Loys seated herself. A large coffee-stain on 
 the table-cloth stared her in the face. Her 
 father was stirring his tea so vigorously that the 
 saucer was flooded. 
 
 "I'd s'posed yeh'd hev un yer bunnet. 
 Natchelly, yer pinin' ter git back." 
 
 Nature had not taken into consideration the
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 23 
 
 possibilities of Yerrington's wishing to be face- 
 tious. He was at no time handsome, but he 
 was most unpleasant to look at when he smiled. 
 His thin lips parted painfully over his yellow 
 teeth and discolored gums ; Loys was always 
 in dread lest the tightly drawn skin would 
 break. 
 
 He sipped the tea loudly through his closed 
 teeth, looking from Loys to her sisters. 
 
 " W'y don't yeh fix yer ha'r tidy like hern? " 
 he demanded of Laura. 
 
 " I have n't got the time, pa," she answered, 
 good-naturedly. 
 
 " We 're ull druv yere," he allowed. " We 'ns 
 ain't got no time ter mek oursels pooty. 
 P'r'aps it 's jest ez well. I allers like ter see a 
 gyrl look sorter genteel, but they ez sech a thun 
 ez her carin' too much fer perkin' up. They 's 
 thet shameless hussy's picter in yer room, 
 Loys. Ef I hed my way, I "d hev burned it. A 
 painted Jezebel, 'thout enuff close un. Mebby 
 it seems ull right ter yeh now, fer yeh hev 
 grow'd slack ; but onct un a time it 'd hev 
 seemed ull wrong." 
 
 Loys played with her spoon, her eyes dis- 
 creetly veiled. She would be tempted into no 
 argument. It would all be over in another hour.
 
 24 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 "\V'y don't yeh ansur? 'Taint likely yeh 
 agree with me." 
 
 " No, I do not agree with you." 
 
 "Yeh ain't got nothun agin it, then. Yeh 
 think it's decent?" 
 
 " I wonder if you ever heard a story I once 
 came across about your friend Dr. Johnson." 
 
 " I ain't never heerd tell un it." 
 
 " He was standing before a statue with Bos- 
 well," commenced the girl, " and Boswell asked 
 him if he did not think it indecent. * No, sir,' 
 was the reply, ' but your remark is.' " 
 
 There was an ominous silence as she finished. 
 Her father bent upon her his angry eyes, which 
 she met calmly. She wished she had not 
 spoken, but the words seemed to have been 
 forced from her. Before Yerrington could 
 speak, Gregory Kendall stood within the room. 
 
 " I '11 hev ter mek tracks," said Yerrington. 
 "They's a passel er work ter be done afore 
 night- fall, and I s'pose yeh want sumbuddy ter 
 tek yeh and yer vallisses to the station." 
 
 " Let me save you the trouble," put in Ken- 
 dall. " I shall be glad to take Loys, if she is 
 willing." 
 
 "Thank you, Gregory," interposed Loys. 
 " Nora promised to drive me to the station."
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 25 
 
 " They ain't no sense in mekin' the trip ef 
 Kendall's goin'. It's hot out, red hot, and 
 Nora and the hoss 'u'd kum back tuckered out. 
 Yeh kin jest ez well go with him," insisted 
 Yerrington. 
 
 He gave an unsatisfactory peck at his 
 daughter's cheek, and passed from the house. 
 The fragrance of her face haunted him. The 
 care she took of herself was sinful, he thought, 
 but he liked the contact with her violet-scented 
 cheek. 
 
 Loys went upstairs, followed by her mother. 
 Mrs. Yerrington watched her put on her hat 
 and veil, her lips pressed together as if to 
 restrain a moan. 
 
 " It 's hard to think I won't see you until 
 Christmas," she began. 
 
 The girl knelt down beside her, bringing the 
 madly swaying rocker to a sudden stand-still. 
 
 "It would be so easy for you to come, 
 mother dear. If it were only for a few days, I 
 should be content. You don't know what 
 happiness we should crowd into those days. 
 Promise to come." 
 
 She pressed her cheek against her mother's 
 faded one ; she clasped the work-stained hands 
 in her own exquisitely modelled ones. The
 
 26 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 only point of resemblance between them was 
 the eyes. There was the same soft appeal in 
 both, but Loys's were the more intelligent, and 
 her imperious mouth denied their gentleness. 
 
 Mrs. Yerrington's lips moved convulsively. 
 " Your father, dear, he would n't like it. No, it 
 can't be," she decided. 
 
 "Why should he be so cruel?" rebelled the 
 girl. 
 
 "Hush, child. Your father is a good man, 
 and a forgivin' one. Don't you ever think him 
 harsh." 
 
 The mother always upheld the father before 
 the child. Loys respected her all the more for 
 it. Before her husband, Mrs. Yerrington never 
 showed Loys any affection ; when they were 
 alone, she could not altogether restrain the out- 
 burst of her tenderness. Her other daughters 
 would have looked upon any mark of affection 
 as a waste of time. She was their mother, and, 
 naturally, they loved her ; there was no need to 
 say anything about it. 
 
 " Mother, do you know you have forgotten 
 that I am twenty- four years old to-day? " 
 
 " I quite forgot ; I don't see how I did, but I 
 forgot. But your father remembered. He told 
 me to give you this. He must have remem-
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 27 
 
 bered it was your birthday; he never forgets 
 it," she whispered, as if to herself, straining Loys's 
 hands with fierce intensity. " And I clean for- 
 got. It does n't seem as if it could be twenty- 
 four years ago." She forced into the girl's 
 unwilling hands an envelope, which evidently 
 contained money. " Don't you refuse it, Loys, 
 for my sake. I wish you " 
 
 Loys folded her arms about her mother. 
 There was a mistiness about their eyes when 
 Loys drew on her gloves. 
 
 " I wish your father had let Nora take you to 
 the station, since you'd have preferred it. 
 Listen, Loys : don't marry Gregory, if you don't 
 love him. I don't see how you could well do 
 better ; but don't take him, if you don't love 
 him." 
 
 " Gregory knows, mother, that I shall never 
 marry him." 
 
 She went into the kitchen to bid the Chinese 
 cook good- by, then kissed her sisters. 
 
 In a way they were sorry to see her go. She 
 was quick and willing, and made their work 
 light for them ; but they also knew that they 
 could lapse into modes of speech and habits at 
 which Loys openly frowned. Altogether, it was 
 more comfortable when she was away.
 
 28 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 Loys and Kendall were alone in the dog-cart. 
 The pitiless glare of the brazen sun was insup- 
 portable, but Loys was unconscious of it. She 
 was absorbed in her shamed feeling of relief at 
 getting away. Kendall looked down upon her, 
 a great happiness in his eyes because he was 
 with her. 
 
 "Of what are you thinking, Loys?" he 
 asked. 
 
 She was looking over at Mount Diablo in the 
 distance, a tremulous smile upon her lips. 
 
 " I have been indulging myself in a little 
 cheap cynicism. Do you remember when we 
 took this drive together four years ago, when I 
 first went to Miss Eastlake's? I wonder that 
 you did not laugh at my audacious confidence 
 in myself. I believed " she hurried on, with 
 a mirthless little laugh " Ah, what did I not 
 believe ? But now I have grown so sceptical I 
 do not even believe in myself." 
 
 " I wish I could impart to you some of my 
 content." 
 
 " Contentment is a diet on which one turns 
 into a vegetable. I do not wish to be content 
 with what I have." 
 
 " Most women would be content with what 
 you have," he urged. " You live "
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 29 
 
 " No, I do not ; and as long as I live, I wish 
 to live. For four years I have been describing 
 the same circle ; but perhaps, during three of 
 them, it was with the hope that the circle would 
 widen. I had dreams of success and travel. 
 And now, now I know I shall rise every morning 
 (before I have any inclination to rise) to teach 
 history and English, to go to bed so exhausted 
 that I shall have no desire to improve myself. 
 There is no sense in denying it, poverty is a 
 strait-jacket, and one it is impossible to wrest 
 open. I am afraid I am growing to be a pro- 
 fessional pessimist," she added, ruefully. 
 
 It was not often she made a confidant of him, 
 for she realized that he could not understand or 
 sympathize with her wild dreams and vaulting 
 ambitions. 
 
 "Would you marry for money?" he que- 
 ried. 
 
 " Oh, no, I was taught that I was not to do 
 that ; but I am equally as determined not to 
 fall in love with any but a wealthy man. A 
 woman's heart is such an accommodating 
 article. It will be a case of, 
 
 ' I would not love you half so much, dear, 
 Loved I not riches more.' "
 
 30 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 She turned to Kendall, making a show of 
 gravity ; and he, noting her mouth of exquisite 
 sensibility, decided that she meant nothing of 
 what she had said. 
 
 " So you think you would be happy if you 
 could travel?" he questioned, looking between 
 the horse's ears. 
 
 " Happy ? I do not know. But I do not 
 wish to go out of the world having seen nothing 
 of it. Ah, well, if I do, I warn you, I shall 
 come back as a ghost-^s\y, to wander about all 
 the splendors I am now missing." 
 
 By a mental pirouette she had regained the 
 safety of the middle course. On the instant 
 she became more tangible to him. 
 
 " Loys," he whispered, " I have not much to 
 offer you, but I would do my utmost to make 
 you happy. Is it " 
 
 " Don't," she pleaded. " We have been 
 through it all a great many times before, and it 
 will always have the same ending. Don't you 
 see, dear, that I could do without all of which I 
 spoke, if I loved you ? But I do not, and I never 
 shall." 
 
 "I wonder what I would have said," she 
 mused, as she stepped from the cart, "if he 
 had asked me to be his wife when we first left
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 31 
 
 the farm. I am glad I do not know. I was so 
 anxious to get away from the sordidness of it all. 
 Fortunately he never asks me when I am in one 
 of my moods." 
 
 In her interest in the flying landscape, Ken- 
 dall was soon dismissed from her thoughts.
 
 34 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 own recognition, and she would have been in a 
 fair way to be spoiled had not her native 
 good sense saved her. She had never, unfor- 
 tunately, been able to deceive herself, and the 
 world met with no greater success. 
 
 For more than a year she watched the antics 
 of her little circle with a spice of amused 
 malice ; then its jejune conversation began 
 to bore her seriously, and, having served her 
 novitiate, she rarely afterward ventured beyond 
 the frontiers of society. 
 
 Under the chaperonage of Mrs. Luttrell, an 
 old family friend, she travelled extensively, and 
 had only within the week returned to San 
 Francisco from Japan. 
 
 " I hope Wilson will not announce dinner 
 just yet," Penelope was saying, as she stood in 
 her drawing-room that evening, with Mrs. 
 Luttrell, Riker Van Arsdale, and Laura Yorke, 
 a school-girl of eighteen or nineteen years of 
 age. "Bishop makes it a point to dine with 
 me on my birthday, even at some inconvenience 
 to himself; consequently I shall feel wounded 
 if he allows the matter of a few hundred miles 
 to keep him away to-night." 
 
 She moved across the room to arrange some 
 lilies, and Laura Yorke noted the exquisite
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 35 
 
 detail of her toilet. Penelope Browning 
 achieved the by no means easy triumph, for a 
 woman with unlimited means at her command, 
 of having her clothes impress the onlooker, 
 not with a desire to know how much they cost, 
 but where she ordered them. 
 
 " But, you see," interposed Laura Yorke, 
 " he returned only last Wednesday, when he 
 joined mother at Castle Crag. As she expects 
 to return to-morrow, it is not probable he will 
 be here to-night." 
 
 She was speaking of Bishop Yorke, her half- 
 brother. She somewhat resented Penelope's 
 calm belief that he would disarrange all his 
 plans merely for the sake of dining with her 
 that night. No trace of her annoyance was 
 visible, however. 
 
 As the last word died away, Yorke was 
 announced. 
 
 He stood for a second looking about him, as 
 though pleased to find himself again in the 
 room, then crossed to Mrs. Luttrell, while his 
 strong bronzed face relaxed into a smile of 
 undisguised pleasure. 
 
 He was a distinctly noticeable man in appear- 
 ance. The lower portion of his face, however, 
 was of such marked vigor of outline that it
 
 36 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 tended to produce an impression of strength 
 rather than of beauty. Some people chose to 
 consider him too tall ; but when he stood next 
 to other men, he never appeared awkward, 
 they only seemed insignificant. The room 
 seemed suddenly to have grown smaller. 
 
 " It was kind of you to wait for me ; I see 
 in the action your faith in me," he murmured, 
 as he bent over Penelope's hand. 
 
 He turned to greet his sister, who said, " I 
 did not expect you until to-morrow. Did 
 mamma return with you?" 
 
 " No," he returned, smiling leisurely down at 
 her. " I was sorry to leave her, but she will be 
 quite comfortable under the care of her maid, 
 and I always contrive, if possible, to dine with 
 Penelope on this night." 
 
 Her eyes fell under his gaze. She was 
 angered that she had revealed her jealousy of 
 his attention to their hostess. . 
 
 "And so you have concluded to spend the 
 winter in Italy," Yorke hazarded, when his first 
 hunger had been appeased. 
 
 " Yes, and then to continue on a systematic 
 voyage of discovery," Penelope explained. 
 " I feel I am unkind to entail upon Mrs. Lut- 
 trell all the fatigue of sight-seeing. It is time
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 37 
 
 that she be relieved. Do you know some in- 
 teresting, charming woman who would be 
 willing to accompany us?" 
 
 " It is 'time that Mrs. Luttrell be relieved," 
 agreed Van Arsdale. 
 
 "Yes, it is time," echoed Yorke, discreetly 
 lowering his lids to conceal a smile. 
 
 Penelope Browning's lips parted in a smile of 
 amusement. " It was very clever of you," she 
 commenced, turning to Van Arsdale. " I con- 
 fess I was surprised at the size of the bunch, 
 and proceeded suspiciously to count the roses 
 you sent me to-day. There were twenty-five 
 full-blown, feathery flowers, and one tiny bud. 
 They were symbolical of my years. I smiled 
 appreciatively." 
 
 "And twenty-five and one make twenty- 
 six," reminded Laura. ! 
 
 "Ah," breathed Penelope, making a careful 
 scrutiny of Laura's cold face, " Ah, I was never 
 clever at figures. It was a thing to which little 
 attention was given in my school-days. I am 
 not a calculating young woman, Laura. And 
 yet the sight of the roses filled me with a vague 
 dismay. I held my hand-mirror in the clear, 
 disheartening light, and realized, with cruel 
 keenness, that it is time, as you so pleasantly
 
 38 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 intimate, that I arrange myself. It must be a 
 very superior article which can go through 
 twenty-five years of this weary strife and still 
 show no signs of wear and tear. But all my 
 faculties are, as yet, unimpaired, that of 
 speech in particular." 
 
 "Yes, it is time," reiterated Riker Van Arsdale. 
 " A woman never attains her true happiness 
 until she is married. The frame of your mind, 
 Penelope, is clearly indicated by your unsettled 
 mode of life. You are forever on the wing " 
 
 " Pursuing happiness," she interrupted. 
 
 " I think we both came to-night, prepared to 
 make you realize the folly of your course," 
 declared Yorke. " We are such old friends, 
 we feel we have the right to speak quite openly, 
 for you have always granted us that privilege. 
 You are such a womanly woman, I know you 
 will find your happiness only in your home and 
 husband." 
 
 "Don't wait too long," cautioned Van Ars- 
 dale. "Each year you will grow more exact- 
 ing." 
 
 " And we must team to close our eyes, or else 
 peer discreetly between our fingers at the 
 failings of our fellows," put in Yorke. 
 
 Penelope raised her glass and drank almost
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 39 
 
 feverishly, then bent her head toward Van 
 Arsdale. 
 
 "Have you no conception of your foolhardi- 
 ness?" she demanded, her long eyes narrowing. 
 " You have planted the idea of marriage in my 
 active imagination. You have even held it out 
 to me as a duty, and no one ever knew me to 
 avoid a duty. Yet you must have been alive 
 to the fact that you two are the men I like best. 
 You have planned your own Frankenstein. Be- 
 ware that it does not destroy you." 
 
 Van Arsdale's worn smile flickered across 
 his face and died prematurely. Yorke flushed 
 uncomfortably under her gay tone. Possibly 
 they had overstepped the bounds of good 
 taste by speaking so plainly, although she had 
 always encouraged them to do so. In former 
 years the comments of to-night had been spoken 
 in jest ; but possibly it was the strain of earnest- 
 ness which now offended. 
 
 "Shall I tell you why I am not married?" 
 she asked. 
 
 They all bent upon her a look of mock 
 serious attention, and Mrs. Luttrell laughed at 
 the grave import of her words. 
 
 " It all happened years ago," Penelope 
 began, in a musing voice, " so long ago that I
 
 4O A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 forget when it first came to me Love. You 
 must not blame the man ; he made no effort to 
 win it. And ever since he has filled entirely 
 the niche in my heart." 
 
 She looked before her at the yellow roses, 
 now beginning to droop their proud heads, 
 and Laura Yorke foolishly wondered if she knew 
 how beautiful she looked as the candles' dim 
 light brought out the warm glints of her brown 
 hair and deepened the shadows under her 
 softened eyes. Her expression of inflexible 
 gravity stilled their indecent laughter. 
 
 " Why do you not marry him ? " asked Laura. 
 
 " Why ? " echoed Penelope. " Why, because 
 he does not love me." 
 
 Mrs. Luttrell laughed outright in amusement. 
 It was too ridiculous to see Penelope's pose. 
 
 "Are you quite certain?" queried Yorke, 
 falling in with her humor, and admiring the 
 skill with which she was playing her role. 
 
 " Quite certain," she answered, simply. 
 
 " Does he know?" inquired Mrs. Luttrell. 
 
 Penelope started. " I think not. No, no ; 
 of course not." 
 
 " Then let him know," counselled the older 
 woman. 
 
 The girl smiled proudly, and drew herself up.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 4! 
 
 " Put him out of your heart, then, and be 
 happy, with another man," suggested Yorke, 
 taking a peach. 
 
 "And what do you advise?" Penelope 'asked, 
 turning to Van Arsdale. 
 
 " To wait. He is alive, and unmarried ? 
 Yes. I prophesy success for you. It is better 
 to wait for the one, even if he never comes, 
 than to make a pretence of happiness with 
 another." 
 
 " I think so too," she affirmed. Then, to her 
 surprise as well as theirs, a tear gathered in 
 her eye, and glistened there unheeded. No 
 one appeared to see it. " I shall wait, and 
 yet I know I shall wait in vain. Let us forget 
 my melancholy history." 
 
 She watched Yorke with unlimited curiosity 
 as he disposed of his peach. 
 
 "You deserve a round of applause," she 
 continued ; " for a peach is the most difficult 
 thing to eat gracefully. As the two dear old 
 souls in ' Cranford ' ate their oranges in the 
 privacy of their own rooms, because the juice 
 ran everywhere, do you suppose they ate their 
 peaches leaning over a fence?" 
 
 " Miss Yerrington said that very thing to me 
 yesterday," observed Laura Yorke.
 
 42 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 "Who is Miss Yerrington?" appealed Mrs. 
 Luttrell. 
 
 " The teacher of history and English litera- 
 ture at Miss Eastlake's," responded Laura. 
 
 " You are very fortunate to be under her," 
 Van Arsdale volunteered. " She is an unusual 
 young woman." 
 
 They looked at him in faint surprise. 
 
 " I met Miss Yerrington through Kendall," 
 he explained, in reply to Penelope's slightly 
 arched brows. " They are great friends." 
 
 " Gregory Kendall," repeated Penelope. "It 
 seems strange to think of him as the friend of 
 one of Miss Eastlake's teachers. I thought he 
 never knew any one not possessed of a million 
 or two." 
 
 " I never noticed that characteristic in Ken- 
 dall," remonstrated Yorke, "though I should 
 not blame him for it. Life is a game of whist, 
 and it is part of one's duties to know who 
 holds trumps and diamonds and the high 
 honors." 
 
 "That she is young is an innovation," re- 
 sumed Penelope, taking Yorke's rebuke with 
 the calm of one accustomed to his reprimands. 
 " In other days, all of Miss Eastlake's teachers 
 were so old, it seemed that death had forgotten
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 43 
 
 them. So she teaches you English, which I 
 suppose she don't know herself." 
 
 "Yes, she do," contradicted Laura. "Oh, I 
 did not intend to be rude ! " 
 
 " Why do you say ' She do,' and then color 
 so warmly? " 
 
 " You see, you said, ' She don't,' and when 
 we say that, Miss Yerrington interrupts quietly, 
 ' Oh, yes, she do.' We say ' She does n't,' now." 
 
 The smile became epidemic. 
 
 "She writes," put in Van Arsdale. "Per- 
 haps you read that story of hers on Saturday, 
 ' A Last Resource.' " 
 
 " Was that hers ? It was told with fine dra- 
 matic power, and was extremely well written," 
 commended Yorke. 
 
 " Name us some of her heroes in history," 
 directed Penelope. 
 
 Laura knit her brows. " I do not know her, 
 or her likes or dislikes, intimately. Still, I 
 think she admires Napoleon vastly, for her 
 voice rings as she quotes, ' Carelessly, almost in 
 a stooping attitude, rode the Emperor, with 
 one hand holding aloft the rein, with the other 
 stroking in kindly fashion his horse's neck. It 
 was a sunny, marble hand, a ' " 
 
 " mighty hand, one of those two hands
 
 42 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 "Who is Miss Yerrington?" appealed Mrs. 
 Luttrell. 
 
 " The teacher of history and English litera- 
 ture at Miss Eastlake's," responded Laura. 
 
 " You are very fortunate to be under her," 
 Van Arsdale volunteered. " She is an unusual 
 young woman." 
 
 They looked at him in faint surprise. 
 
 " I met Miss Yerrington through Kendall," 
 he explained, in reply to Penelope's slightly 
 arched brows. " They are great friends." 
 
 " Gregory Kendall," repeated Penelope. " It 
 seems strange to think of him as the friend of 
 one of Miss Eastlake's teachers. I thought he 
 never knew any one not possessed of a million 
 or two." 
 
 " I never noticed that characteristic in Ken- 
 dall," remonstrated Yorke, " though I should 
 not blame him for it. Life is a game of whist, 
 and it is part of one's duties to know who 
 holds trumps and diamonds and the high 
 honors." 
 
 " That she is young is an innovation," re- 
 sumed Penelope, taking Yorke's rebuke with 
 the calm of one accustomed to his reprimands. 
 " In other days, all of Miss Eastlake's teachers 
 were so old, it seemed that death had forgotten
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 43 
 
 them. So she teaches you English, which I 
 suppose she don't know herself." 
 
 "Yes, she do," contradicted Laura. "Oh, I 
 did not intend to be rude ! " 
 
 " Why do you say ' She do,' and then color 
 so warmly?" 
 
 " You see, you said, ' She don't,' and when 
 we say that, Miss Yerrington interrupts quietly, 
 ' Oh, yes, she do.' We say ' She does n't,' now." 
 
 The smile became epidemic. 
 
 "She writes," put in Van Arsdale. "Per- 
 haps you read that story of hers on Saturday, 
 * A Last Resource.' " 
 
 " Was that hers ? It was told with fine dra- 
 matic power, and was extremely well written," 
 commended Yorke. 
 
 "Name us some of her heroes in history," 
 directed Penelope. 
 
 Laura knit her brows. " I do not know her, 
 or her likes or dislikes, intimately. Still, I 
 think she admires Napoleon vastly, for her 
 voice rings as she quotes, ' Carelessly, almost in 
 a stooping attitude, rode the Emperor, with 
 one hand holding aloft the rein, with the other 
 stroking in kindly fashion his horse's neck. It 
 was a sunny, marble hand, a ' " 
 
 " mighty hand, one of those two hands
 
 44 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 that had bound the many-headed monster of 
 anarchy, and enforced order amidst the conflict 
 of the nations ; and now it was caressing good- 
 naturedly the mane of his horse," supplied 
 Yorke, in German, as Laura faltered. " His 
 face too had the sheen that we notice in the 
 countenances of Greek and Roman statues ; its 
 features certainly were cast in the noble mould 
 of the antique, and on them was written, ' Thou 
 shalt have no other gods before me.' " 
 
 "Does she know Heine in the original?" 
 queried Penelope. 
 
 " Yes, and do you know why she is studying 
 French now?" Laura paused abruptly, as if 
 dismayed at her own prolixity. 
 
 "And why is she studying French?" asked 
 Yorke, encouragingly. 
 
 It was too late for retreat. The look of con- 
 fusion still lingered, but the girl was smiling as 
 she continued, " One evening when I was not 
 well, and she was bathing my head (no one has 
 such a hand as Miss Yerrington), she told me 
 she was studying French that she might speak 
 it to her children, and save them the neces- 
 sity of struggling with the difficulties of the 
 language." 
 
 Yorke's laugh led all the rest.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 45 
 
 Van Arsdale was the last to leave that night. 
 As he and Penelope stood in the drawing- 
 room, she said : " I have been thinking of 
 Laura's Miss Yerrington. I fancy I should 
 like her. Do you think she would be willing to 
 go away with us? " 
 
 " I have no doubt you would like her, and 
 that she would be glad to accompany you," he 
 returned. "I think you would be peculiarly 
 well-fitted for each other." 
 
 "Upon your return from Alaska, will you 
 take me to her? " 
 
 "I do not know her well enough for that. 
 Gregory Kendall will take you." 
 
 " Oh, I thought you knew her very well. We 
 shall be in Southern California nearly two 
 months, but I shall not forget her, and when 
 we return Gregory must take me to her." 
 
 Although she had a retentive memory, she 
 carefully made a memorandum to write to 
 Kendall while at Coronado. 
 
 On the following afternoon Yorke brought to 
 his sister a rare first edition of " The Book Le 
 Grand," which contained a verse in Heine's 
 own hand. 
 
 " Will you give this to Miss Yerrington? " he 
 said. " I am glad to send it to one who will
 
 46 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 appreciate it. This card will make the accep- 
 tance very easy." 
 
 He had skillfully worded the note so as 
 to exact an answer, and when he heard that 
 Miss Yerrington had accepted the book, he 
 watched for her acknowledgment with an 
 eagerness which diverted even himself. But 
 none ever came.
 
 Chapter IV. 
 
 |T was approaching the close of study- 
 hour in Miss Eastlake's institute. 
 
 Loys Yerrington sympathized with the girls 
 that evening in their only half-concealed dis- 
 taste for their books. It had been one of those 
 sultry, enervating days that visit San Francisco 
 in September, but now, through the open win- 
 dows, there swept the refreshing night-breezes 
 which seemed to woo them from the gas-lit 
 rooms. 
 
 The majority of Miss Eastlake's patrons were 
 day-pupils ; Laura Yorke was the only one, re- 
 siding in San Francisco, who boarded at the 
 school. 
 
 She was now leaning her fair, unruffled head 
 on her hand, watching Kate Tisdall, who was 
 still pondering over the morrow's lessons. 
 
 In San Francisco it is, generally, only the 
 wealthiest class which sends its children to the 
 private schools. After a more than usually irk-
 
 48 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 some day, Loys Yerrington would affirm to 
 herself whimsically that she believed in the law 
 of compensation. Had Miss Eastlake's pupils 
 been less wealthy, they might have been in 
 danger of being termed oafs. 
 
 Loys glanced resentfully at the clock, which 
 seemed to sparkle with malicious pleasure at 
 so slowly marking off the minutes. Laura 
 Yorke's eyes fell upon her. She could not 
 remember ever having seen Miss Yerrington 
 look so unutterably weary. 
 
 " What a fool she is, to waste her time on 
 these idiots ! " mused the girl. " Why does n't 
 she marry Gregory Kendall, and get away from 
 it all? The great reason why she is so dissatis- 
 fied is that she has not the time to write. If 
 she were married, she could do as she liked. 
 I wonder if she is foolish enough to dream of 
 a King Cophetua in this Nineteenth Century 
 of ours." 
 
 Kate Tisdall closed her books with a sigh of 
 relief, and, glancing at Miss Yerrington, turned 
 to Laura with a shrug of the shoulders which 
 indicated that they were unobserved. School- 
 girls always have their fingers clasped tightly 
 around their teacher's pulse. 
 
 " I have learned of the grandest fortune-
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 49 
 
 teller," Kate began, in a penetrating whisper. 
 " Cousin Mary says she is simply wonderful. 
 She just takes your hands in hers and then 
 reveals your past and your fu " 
 
 " Only one class of people goes to fortune- 
 tellers," broke in Laura, decisively. " I am 
 surprised that Mrs. Herrick should have gone. 
 I imagined only servants and people of that 
 stamp displayed a vulgar curiosity about the 
 future." 
 
 "Oh, do they?" scoffed her companion. 
 " Why, all the physicians and lawyers in town 
 think this Mrs. Wills wonderful. Cousin Mary 
 told me that nearly all of these clairvoyants 
 are illiterate frauds, but that Mrs. Wills is 
 extremely intelligent. You ought to hear the 
 things she told Cousin Mary. Would n't you 
 like to go this Saturday? We can manage it 
 some way." 
 
 " It might be interesting as an experience," 
 deliberated Laura. " Madame de Pompadour's 
 future was foretold when she was only ten, and 
 so was Eugenie's, and " 
 
 " Miss Yorke ! " called Loys, warningly. 
 
 Five minutes later she dismissed the girls, 
 but requested Laura Yorke and Kate Tisdall to 
 remain.
 
 50 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 "I had no objection to your whispering," 
 she commenced, "for I knew you would not 
 do so before you had learned your lessons. I 
 thought you must realize it was unavoidable 
 that I should overhear you, for you were at no 
 pains to lower your voices. There must be no 
 further thought of visiting this clairvoyant, 
 whoever she may be. Think of the folly of it. 
 You know your past, perhaps even better 
 than this seer," she urged, smiling. " And the 
 future? No one knows it. If it is to be 
 bright, we can wait for it ; if gloomy, it is 
 merciful we do not know it beforehand : we 
 learn it only too soon. As for the women you 
 cited, it would have been better for them had 
 they not been warned of the fate in store for 
 them. Don't you think Madame de Pom- 
 padour's belief in the prophecy tended to pre- 
 cipitate its fulfilment?" 
 
 " Perhaps," they allowed. 
 
 " I shall not ask you to promise not to go 
 there. I know I may rely upon you. Good- 
 night," she murmured, turning to take the card 
 a maid presented to her. A slight frown 
 marred the smoothness of her brow as she read 
 Kendall's name. 
 
 Gregory Kendall was a far distant connection
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 51 
 
 of Miss Eastlake, so he was at liberty to see 
 Loys as often as she would permit. 
 
 Loys ran up to her room to make some 
 slight changes in her toilet. 
 
 "You are looking tired, Loys," she ex- 
 claimed, making a moue at herself in the 
 mirror, as she fastened a red rose in her hair 
 and tried to pinch some color into her cheeks, 
 " and it is not becoming to look tired." 
 
 She was a woman who would have taken 
 exquisite pains with herself had she lived alone 
 in a desert. With her, cleanliness ranked far 
 above godliness. 
 
 She was not altogether pleased to see Ken- 
 dall that night, for some unperformed duties 
 weighed heavily upon her. 
 
 "You may stay only an hour," she said. 
 " Probably you will wish to go long before the 
 end of it, for I am touched with the universal 
 discontent to-night." 
 
 "No wonder. You have been imprisoned 
 all day. Come for a walk or a ride on the 
 dummy." 
 
 She shook her head. " You do not know 
 how much I have to do. Was it not Socra- 
 tes who said leisure was the fairest of all 
 possessions ? "
 
 52 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 " I don't know," he returned, moodily. 
 
 " It sounds Socratic. Well, I wish I had 
 leisure. What do you want?" she demanded, 
 bending toward him as if devoured by curi- 
 osity. 
 
 " A million," he answered, laconically. 
 
 " I am afraid," she sighed, " that that is 
 everybody's ambition, or that I know a most 
 mundane set. Yes, it must be pleasant to have 
 a healthy bank account. Think of what money 
 can do. It could buy me leisure, to study and 
 to write. If I were rich, I should be kind to 
 young girls. There are so many ways in which 
 one could be kind without laying them under a 
 sense of obligation. There are tickets for con- 
 certs and theatres, and gloves and flowers and 
 pretty handkerchiefs, you have no idea how 
 much fine handkerchiefs cost, Gregory. The 
 rich deserve no credit at all for being amiable ; 
 they can make so many other people happy 
 that the pleasure must envelop even themselves. 
 I can imagine life under given circumstances a 
 very beautiful thing." 
 
 "And now? " he questioned. 
 
 "And now I should be glad to have done 
 with it all. If I could clasp death, with all its 
 mystery to me now, by putting forth my hand,
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 53 
 
 I should reach for it. Yes, I should like to go 
 in search of the great ' Perhaps.' " 
 
 "Hush," he commanded, taking in his own 
 her outstretched hand. " You blaspheme." 
 
 " Do I? " she demanded, wonderingly. 
 " Death to me is a promise of peace. To you, 
 you who believe so firmly in that heaven of 
 yours, I should think my wish would seem only 
 youthful impatience to arrive at the goal." 
 
 " Are you any the happier for disbelieving in 
 heaven? You would be more content if you 
 did not fill your mind with Spinoza, Tyndall, 
 Weis " 
 
 " They do not make me discontented. There 
 is nothing beautiful to me in your idea of 
 heaven, it is too earthy. Why should I not 
 read the books I like ? I disbelieved what you 
 believe long before I read, and I have always 
 demanded the right to think for myself. I pre- 
 fer to pay the toll and get out on thought's 
 highway ; I can't vegetate in blind faith. And 
 so you do not wish to go to heaven yet a 
 while ? " she persisted, gravely. 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Ah, I have noticed that those who believe 
 most firmly in it, object most strenuously to 
 going there. For myself, I hope to go before
 
 54 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 old age overtakes me. I always thought 
 Mohammed's dictum, that old women were to 
 be excluded from Paradise, a wise one, only he 
 modified it by saying they would first be made 
 young again. My eyes are already beginning 
 to wear out. You cannot imagine how much 
 they trouble me to-night." 
 
 "You use them too much," he frowned. 
 " But they look well." 
 
 " I know, but they burn," she murmured, 
 pressing her fingers upon her heavily fringed 
 lids. " I suppose the day will yet come when I 
 shall adorn a corner of Kearny Street, a shade 
 over my eyes and a placard on my breast : 
 ' Please bestow a glance and a nickle on one 
 who can bestow neither.' I wonder, would I 
 have many pence given me?" 
 
 " You would if you let your eyes speak for 
 you," Kendall could not refrain from saying. 
 Loys certainly could coax compliments from 
 one unawares. 
 
 " So you won your Company's suit. You do 
 not know how proud I am of your success." 
 
 "Really, Loys?" he began, his face bright- 
 ening with pleasure. "I did not think you 
 would care or " 
 
 " Of course I care," she hurried on. " I
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 55 
 
 like to know the successful of the land. Will 
 you come to see me when I am forty and still 
 only a teacher and you are a famous lawyer? " 
 
 "What do I care for success without you " 
 
 She laughed nervously as she broke in : " It 
 is strange we two should be peering into the 
 future when I just reprimanded some one for 
 speaking of a certain Mrs. Wills who solves the 
 riddle of life for so much an hour. Why do we 
 wish to pierce the veil? Generally the future 
 is only, as the French have it, ' a black-bird 
 painted white.' " 
 
 " Do even the school-girls speak of Mrs. 
 Wills?" he queried. "Dr. Haswell and Dr. 
 Wheaton are intensely interested in her. She 
 lives in the same block that I do, you know 
 that Queen Anne cottage set back in a garden, 
 and you would be astonished to see whom 
 she numbers among her clients. Wheaton 
 mentioned her apropos of some of Yorke's 
 experiences in India. By the way, did I tell 
 you that Yorke and Van Arsdale go to Alaska 
 to-morrow? " 
 
 " I should like to belong to your club, too. 
 You meet men of brain and wit there, and the 
 club always entertains the well-known people 
 who come here. It can't help but do a man
 
 56 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 good to rub up against bright minds the 
 friction will sometimes even bring a spark or 
 two from us." 
 
 " That means that I am not " 
 
 " A sorcerer," she completed, rising. " Now 
 you must go." 
 
 He rose regretfully. "Must I? Before I 
 go, promise me you will not use your eyes any 
 more to-night." 
 
 " Don't trouble about me. You know I 
 would not about you even if you were blind." 
 
 " In that case you would persuade yourself 
 you had always cared for me, and offer to 
 become my life-long nurse. Some day I shall 
 make believe I am ill and poor, and so get you 
 to consent Oh, love, think how happy we 
 would be in the little home you would furnish 
 to your liking ! You would have time to write, 
 and I should not ask much of you. Only give 
 me the right to care for you," 
 
 She moved her hands restlessly in his grasp. 
 " You promised you would not bring up the old 
 subject again, and the very next time you come, 
 it all begins anew. We must give up our 
 attempt at friendship since you will not be con- 
 tent to have me for a friend ; and I cannot be 
 more. You must not come "
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 57 
 
 He caught her in his arms and kissed her 
 warm red lips. A moment later, he set her 
 free. 
 
 "Go," she breathed. "You, too, must now 
 realize we can continue this no longer." 
 
 He did not trust himself to speak. 
 
 She left his note of apology unanswered, and 
 refused to see him when he called. But she 
 missed him in the days which followed. She 
 had sometimes looked upon his frequent com- 
 ings with resentment ; but they had been a 
 break in the monotony of her life, and with- 
 out him and his admiration of her, and his 
 gossip of men in whose work she was interested, 
 her days seemed more insipid than before. 
 
 On the following Saturday afternoon she 
 chanced to pay a call in the same street as that 
 in which Kendall lodged. On the way home, 
 she paused before an old-fashioned garden, her 
 eyes held by the wealth of pansies and roses 
 and heliotropes abloom in sweet confusion. 
 
 " I should like the people who live here," she 
 decided. She glanced at the house : it was a 
 white Queen Anne cottage. Without giving 
 herself time to think, she opened the iron 
 gate. 
 
 She had recognized the house as that of Mrs.
 
 58 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 Wills, and had been overcome by a desire to 
 meet the woman. Like Laura Yorke, she 
 thought it might be interesting as an experience. 
 If she told her anything of the future Well, 
 if it were not to be a bright one, it would 
 be beneficial to have done with hope, and if 
 it 
 
 " Is Mrs. Wills at home? " Loys asked, bow- 
 ing to the woman who answered her ring. 
 
 " Yes, but Did you wish to see her in 
 regard to a reading? I am sorry, but my 
 daughter does not read on Saturday. Her 
 work is taxing, and she needs the two days of 
 rest." 
 
 Loys turned away, disappointed. She liked 
 the woman's cultured voice, and the arrange- 
 ment of the hall, of which she caught a fleeting 
 glimpse, pleased her artistic tastes. She would 
 have liked to penetrate further. 
 
 " I am sorry to have disturbed you need- 
 lessly," she murmured. 
 
 " Would you care to make an appointment 
 for the coming week?" 
 
 " It is impossible for me to come except on 
 a Saturday." 
 
 The old lady opened the door further. " Per- 
 haps my daughter will give you a sitting, any-
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 59 
 
 way. Your face interests me, and I am sure it 
 will interest her." 
 
 She ushered Loys into a cosey sitting-room, 
 which was unoccupied, and left her alone. 
 Loys looked about her curiously. 
 
 " Suppose Kate Tisdall or Laura Yorke should 
 see me now," she thought, in alarm, but still in 
 gleeful enjoyment of her position, "or Miss 
 Eastlake ! " 
 
 She had barely time to compose her face 
 when Mrs. Wills, a stately woman of some 
 thirty-five years, entered the room. 
 
 " I am afraid," faltered Loys, " that I had no 
 right to intrude upon your well-deserved leisure, 
 but your mother " 
 
 "Yes, mother told me. I inherit my gift 
 from her, and she is much interested in you. 
 Will you sit here?" she proceeded, motioning 
 to a small table and taking her seat opposite 
 Loys. " Remove your gloves, please, and lay 
 your hands in mine, palms downward. You 
 are a sceptic, I see." 
 
 " But willing to be convinced," smiled Loys. 
 
 " That is broad, even for this century of pro- 
 gression," commented Mrs. Wills. " I may be 
 able to see for you, perhaps not ; the influences 
 may be unfavorable. As I am a pantheist, you
 
 60 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 will understand I claim nothing phenomenal for 
 my gift, which is cultivated ; I believe every 
 one possesses this psychometrical power in a 
 degree. If I close my eyes, it is only that my 
 thoughts may not be diverted : I wish to get 
 my inner self into communication with your 
 inner soul. Mrs. Denton (whose name, I pre- 
 sume, is not unfamiliar to you), if given a bit cf 
 the skeleton or the fragment of the tooth of 
 some antedeluvian animal, saw it as it had 
 existed. When given a bit of some article 
 belonging to a person, she could construct from 
 it the person, as the naturalist can build up 
 from a bit of fossil the whole creature. I am 
 a believer in the doctrine that what we have 
 been makes us what we are. And now that I 
 have completed my tedious explanation, we 
 will proceed." 
 
 A strong current of electricity had been 
 communicated to Loys from Mrs. Wills's 
 hands. 
 
 "You have two sisters," observed the me- 
 dium, almost at once, in a conversational tone, 
 " both younger than you. And your mother I 
 see quite plainly, too. Care-worn and thin, 
 farm-life is so wearing, but still with a look of 
 you about the eyes. I hear your father calling
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 6l 
 
 her 'Deb '." She paused uncertainly, then 
 added, "Deborah, is it not?" 
 
 "Yes," breathed the girl. 
 
 "Your father has been dead these twenty 
 years. His name begins with a J " 
 
 " No," broke in Loys, " my father is still 
 alive." 
 
 Mrs. Wills's brow contracted. " Then who 
 is this man who passed away many years ago, 
 whose name began with a J, J ? It escapes 
 me." 
 
 The woman pondered for a moment, then 
 dropped Loys's hands. 
 
 " I am sorry, but I can do nothing for you 
 to-day. I should have told you your father's 
 name and your own, by this time, without error. 
 There will be no charge, of course." 
 
 Loys put forth her hand impetuously. 
 
 "Will you not make me one more at- 
 tempt?" she pleaded. "You have interested 
 me deeply." 
 
 The woman yielded under the entreating 
 eyes. She again took Loys's hands within her 
 own, and her eyes closed. 
 
 "Who is this Andrew I see? " she murmured, 
 after a little. 
 
 " My father," exclaimed Loys, before per-
 
 62 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 ceiving that the question had not been addressed 
 to her. 
 
 " Her father," repeated Mrs. Wills. " A 
 hard, cold man, and yet not so hard that he did 
 not once forgive a grievous wrong. You nursed 
 him through an illness a short time ago, but he 
 is now quite well. I see no changes on the 
 farm for many years to come, except that your 
 second sister will marry in December." 
 
 In the silence which ensued, the girl's breath 
 came thick and fast. It seemed extremly pro- 
 bable that Laura would marry Will Harland, 
 although there was, as yet, no formal engage- 
 ment, and as Mrs. Wills formed her sentences, 
 Loys listened intently for what she would say 
 touching her own future. She felt impelled to 
 wrest her hands free, but was powerless to 
 move. What folly it was to fear this guess- 
 work ! 
 
 " Loys," recommenced the woman, hesitat- 
 ingly, although the girl started at the sound of 
 her own name on the stranger's lips, " Loys, 
 are you going to marry this man who has been 
 wanting you so long? What a hard little toiler 
 you are, child, and always with the brain. The 
 teaching has grown wearisome lately. But do 
 not attempt another book now, when it would
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 63 
 
 mean night-work. Take care of your eyes and 
 you have nothing to fear, but do not abuse 
 them. Yet the book would be a success, the 
 first was written when you were too young. 
 What do the two ways to Europe mean, and 
 both come so soon ? You are going to Europe 
 within two months, but I am afraid it is with 
 the wrong one." 
 
 Then she looked off over the years, Loys 
 leaning still further forward ; but what the woman 
 said would interest only Loys. 
 
 " And the man named J , he is so near, 
 
 yet so indistinct," murmured Mrs. Wills, open- 
 ing her eyes. " Have I told you the truth? " 
 she asked, looking into the girl's distended eyes. 
 
 " There were some things which were true 
 and some I wish would come true, but do not 
 believe will, and some But they are a long 
 way off. I shall not let the thought of them 
 trouble me now." 
 
 " That is right. I may, too, have been mis- 
 taken about them," Mrs. Wills prompted, with 
 a desire to soothe her manifest excitement. 
 " As a usual thing I remember nothing of what 
 I have seen, my thoughts crowd, my glimpse 
 is so fleeting, but I wish to caution you against 
 some one who is withholding something from
 
 64 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 you, something it is of vital importance you 
 should know." 
 
 Loys smiled with cheerful incredulity. The 
 few people who came at all into her life she 
 knew she could trust until death. 
 
 " You have prophesied success for me, and 
 you have promised me a trip to Europe within 
 two months, which is as unlikely as 
 
 Mrs. Wills smiled. 
 
 "What confidence you have in yourself!" 
 whispered Loys. " You do not know what else 
 you said. But it is a long way off; I will not 
 think of it." 
 
 " Do you regret that you came ? Oh, I am 
 sorry if I have " 
 
 "No, I am not sorry I came," interrupted 
 Loys ; but she shuddered as if grown suddenly 
 cold.
 
 Chapter V. 
 
 9 
 
 |ISS EASTLAKE'S institute was an im- 
 posing structure, which haughtily reared 
 its head, in prim, starched-like respectability 
 of mien, tall and narrow, dark and stern (not 
 unlike Miss Eastlake herself), far above the 
 surrounding buildings. To Loys Yerrington, 
 the round, stained-glass window in the front of 
 the edifice always seemed to frown darkly down 
 upon her in grim disapproval, as Miss Eastlake 
 had a habit of doing when thwarted. 
 
 Loys's room was on the highest floor, on the 
 corner. In the evening, when she was at length 
 free, she would draw her low chair to the window 
 and look out over the encircling roofs to the 
 bay in the distance, and dream impossible 
 dreams. 
 
 That night her dreams were not pleasant 
 ones. 
 
 She had turned the light down until it was 
 the merest glimmer, for her head was throbbing 
 madly and her eyes burned. 
 5
 
 66 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 " I suppose I should go to bed," she medi- 
 tated doubtfully. " But it seems such a 
 waste of time when I have so much to do. 
 Dr. Parker said I must not use my eyes at 
 night, nor any more than possible during the 
 day. Yet what am I to do if I may not read 
 at night?" 
 
 She took up a letter bearing the imprint of a 
 well-known publishing house, which she had 
 perused more than once that day, and read 
 again : 
 
 " We have read with very lively interest your novel, 
 ' The Reverse Side,' and beg you to believe that we 
 are by no means blind to its many and obvious 
 excellences of both substance and form, although 
 we must regretfully conclude that we shall be 
 unable to add it to our list. We do not publish 
 so much fiction as some houses, and trust you will 
 readily find some other publishers more confident 
 than we can quite bring ourselves to be that your 
 book will meet the difficult conditions of success- 
 ful novel publication, at present. We return the 
 MS. by express, and hope you will accept our 
 sincere thanks for the opportunity of considering 
 it." 
 
 " The book must have merit, or they would 
 not write me such a letter," Loys declared, " but
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 67 
 
 I can see its faults now. If I had only the time 
 to write the plot I have in mind ! I am more 
 mature now. I began to write that book when 
 I was twenty-two, and it has been to four firms. 
 Each one keeps it about three months, and two 
 weeks are consumed in its forwarding to New 
 York and return. What a disadvantage we 
 labor under here, away from all literary or musi- 
 cal atmosphere, from every art-center. In 
 less than a fortnight vacation will be here, and 
 I shall go to the farm. But there will be no 
 time for writing there, for Laura will wish me tp 
 help her with her trousseau. I hate the thought 
 of going : I am ashamed of it, but I cannot 
 overcome it. How can Laura love Will Har- 
 land? He is so odiously funny and petty. 
 And he drinks, she knows he does, and that 
 his father was a dipsomaniac. Oh, she has no 
 right to marry him and entail such misery on 
 her children. I wonder if she really loves him, 
 or whether it is only the desire to escape from 
 the hard ugliness of her life and to have a home 
 of her own which prompts her to marry him. 
 
 " It is always an alluring thought to a woman, 
 that of having a home of her own," she 
 continued. "I know I should assume such 
 matronly airs if I were the mistress of a six-
 
 68 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 roomed house, and order my little servant 
 about simply to feel a delightful sense of author- 
 ity. And in the evening, when he came home, 
 and we sat down to our dainty table " 
 
 She levelled her cottage-building to the ground 
 with a harsh laugh, and raised the gas defiantly. 
 The words " Chapter IV " stared up at her from 
 the note-book she opened. She had begun the 
 story a few days after her interview with Mrs. 
 Wills. She had no faith in the prophecy that 
 she would shortly go to Europe, but she be- 
 lieved success might be hers if she could but 
 find the time to write another book. She had 
 disregarded the advice not to tax her eyes, and 
 had been forced to go to the oculist. For the 
 past few days she had adhered to his directions, 
 but the story had been continuously in her 
 thoughts, and now the words trembled at the 
 nib of her pen, and hurriedly dissolved them- 
 selves into ink. 
 
 Two pages were soon covered, and then the 
 lines began to dance before her eyes. She set her 
 lips firmly and commenced the third, but soon 
 it was all a hopeless blur. The pen fell from 
 her nerveless fingers, and she again turned low 
 the lights as if to hide from herself her blinding 
 tears. She caught her quivering lip between
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 69 
 
 her sharp, white teeth, to choke back the heavy 
 sobs which threatened to suffocate her. She 
 must not cry, she would not cry, when she knew 
 tears would injure her eyes. 
 
 Some one rapped at the door. 
 
 " What is it, Jane ? " she asked. 
 
 The maid handed her Kendall's card. Across 
 its face he had written, "Do not refuse to 
 see me. I have come only to bid you good- 
 by." 
 
 She hesitated momentarily, then left the room. 
 It would be well to escape her rabid thoughts 
 for a time. 
 
 As she entered the apartment in which Ken- 
 dall awaited her, she involuntarily covered her 
 eyes to shield them from the glare of the lights. 
 Kendall paled at the action, then quickly extin- 
 guished two of the gas jets and lowered the 
 third. 
 
 "Have you been caring for your eyes?" he 
 demanded. " Are they better? " 
 
 She looked at him in cold wonderment. 
 " How did you know they have been troubling 
 me?" 
 
 " I saw you go into Parker's office, and when 
 you came out you looked so frightened that I 
 went in myself," he explained, with simple
 
 7O A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 directness. " Dr. Parker is an old friend of 
 mine." 
 
 " You had no right " 
 
 " No, I know ; but I could not help myself." 
 
 He looked so humble, so conscious of his 
 wrong-doing, that Loys felt a mad inclination to 
 laugh, for generally Kendall wore a rather self- 
 satisfied, autocratic air. 
 
 " Have you been ill? " she queried, in quick 
 self-reproach, as she noticed his wan face and 
 dejected attitude. 
 
 "No. Loys, Loys, what heavy punishment 
 you can mete out without a qualm ! " 
 
 " It was a wise decree, and if you persist you 
 will make me regret having seen you. If you 
 only make an effort you can displace me from 
 your heart, and after a little some pretty, young 
 girl will enter your life, who will love you entirely, 
 and whom you will " 
 
 "Don't. It hurts me to see you placidly 
 arranging my marriage to another. If I should 
 ever hear of your marriage " His face set 
 in an expression of cruel, malignant hatred. 
 " So Laura is going to marry Will Harland," he 
 proceeded. " Are you glad? " 
 
 "Why should I pretend to be glad to you? " 
 she demurred. "I think him altogether un-
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. ^\ 
 
 worthy of Laura you do not know how unsel- 
 fish she is. She loves him, but, oh, she has no 
 right to marry him. We who have always known 
 him are aware he drinks, and that it is an in- 
 herited weakness. Last summer, when I saw 
 how matters were tending, I did my utmost to 
 open her eyes to the wrong she would be doing, 
 but she would not listen. If she would be harm- 
 ing only herself, I should have said no word ; 
 but she has no right to perpetuate misery. It 
 is criminal." 
 
 "Suppose you loved Will Harland, with a 
 love which filled your whole being, would you 
 not marry him? " He watched her with covert 
 eagerness. 
 
 " No, I would not. I would rather die ten 
 thousand deaths than marry such a man," she 
 declared, with quiet firmness. 
 
 " You do not know what you would do," he 
 broke forth, fiercely. 
 
 The girl was too weary to carry the discus- 
 sion farther. With partially closed eyes, she 
 leaned against the cushions and watched him 
 idly as he clutched at the inoffending tassel of 
 his arm-chair. 
 
 " He is looking especially handsome and 
 well-groomed to-night," she meditated. " It
 
 72 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 would be well for Gregory if he could have a 
 new suit every day in the week. His clothes 
 lose their first freshness so soon. I believe he 
 leaves them in an unsightly mass on the floor, 
 as they fall from him. It is strange he should 
 be so careless in that regard, for his linen is 
 always immaculate, and he is more than par- 
 ticular about his person. Yet I have seen him 
 wear clothes sadly in need of a brushing ; and it 
 is easier to forgive a spot on a man's character 
 than one on his clothes. It seems to me I see 
 a great deal too much," she deplored. " It is 
 a mistake to know people too intimately. I 
 always admired Dante more before I learned 
 that he sometimes did not change his linen for 
 weeks." 
 
 " Tell me something about the condition of 
 your eyes," he urged. " Have you been obey- 
 ing Parker's instructions?" 
 
 " I cannot do otherwise. They refuse to 
 permit me to work." 
 
 " Do you wish me to read to you now? And 
 all this week is at your disposal." 
 
 In her tired state his kindness touched her 
 inexpressibly. "You are too kind to me, dear 
 old Greg," she whispered, tremulously. 
 
 It comforted her to have him with her.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 73 
 
 " What are you going to do with your even- 
 ings?" he asked. 
 
 " Every one has been more than good, and 
 has offered to read or write for me, but " 
 
 " You never did like any one to read to you. 
 Poor little girl," he murmured, under his 
 breath. 
 
 " Don't remind me of unpleasant things," 
 she cautioned, trying to speak lightly. "At 
 least I am rich in one very good friend." 
 
 " I want you to listen to what I am going to 
 say now as coming simply from your friend. 
 Let me speak on to the end, once and for all. 
 As I told you, I have seen Parker, and he says 
 you must never again abuse your eyes as you 
 have in the past. If you cannot work for your- 
 self at night, I know how unhappy you will be. 
 Can you not persuade yourself that you like me 
 enough to give yourself into my keeping? I 
 should try not to fret you by my love. You 
 would have time for your studies and work, and 
 to arrange and rearrange your hair how many 
 times a day do you wish to do it? And there 
 would be your light household duties, and time 
 enough to be womanly, as you phrase it. Do 
 you " 
 
 " I cannot let you go on," she moaned, inter- 
 lacing her fingers.
 
 74 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 " And you would teach the cook all your 
 famous recipes," he went on, unheeding her 
 interruption, although his fingers closed still 
 more savagely about the tassel. " What a 
 pretty home it would be, with all the modest 
 little articles of vertu we should accumulate in 
 Europe ! " he concluded, playing his last card. 
 
 " Are you going to Europe ? " she cried. 
 
 "Did I forget to tell you?" he asked, with 
 cunning hypocrisy. " It is about the affairs of 
 the Williams estate that I am going. I leave 
 in ten days, and shall be away three months. 
 Not a long while, but there will be time to see 
 something of the Old World." 
 
 " How glad I am you are going, and how 
 I shall miss you, dear old Greg ! " She realized 
 the truth of her words. The city would seem 
 bleak and desolate without him. It was true 
 she had not seen him within the past month, 
 but she knew he was within reach. 
 
 " Why should you be sorry to see the last of 
 an ogre?" he said, with a sad smile. "You 
 will be about going to the farm, and in the 
 festive time of Laura's wedding you will not 
 devote a single thought to me. You know, 
 Will Harland and his followers always make a 
 merry time for themselves."
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 75 
 
 She repressed a shudder. The thought of 
 going to the farm and meeting Will Harland 
 and his friends weighed upon her remorselessly. 
 
 " I suppose I must not detain you longer," 
 he added. 
 
 With a dim sense of pain she watched him 
 rise. How powerful and strong he looked, and 
 how weak and weary she felt. 
 
 His subtle instincts told him that a word too 
 much or a word too little would make or mar 
 his life's happiness. His nerves were strung to 
 the utmost tension, though he was outwardly 
 collected. Never before had he been so alert 
 to her needs as that night. 
 
 He knelt down and stole his arm about her, 
 saying, softly, " Can't you decide to make me 
 happy, Loys?" 
 
 She felt his arm, but she was so weary that she 
 was glad of it. Suddenly she sat erect, pushing 
 him away. The moment was pregnant with 
 importance to them both. 
 
 " Wait," she breathed, her face feverishly 
 aglow. " Let me be honest with you and show 
 you my true self. It is the thought of seeing 
 Europe which is bribing me, and the fact that I 
 shall have time to write. If it were not for 
 that, I should not "
 
 76 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 "I know, sweet," the man interrupted, in 
 mad triumph. 
 
 " Suppose that afterward there should come 
 into my life a man " 
 
 He crushed her to him in quick fright. 
 " There will be none such," he affirmed, 
 jealously. 
 
 " We have known each other so long there is 
 no danger that we are being deceived. Even 
 under existing circumstances, you are sure you 
 want me? " she asked, with a pretence at grave 
 humility. 
 
 He drew her hands to his mouth and kissed 
 them passionately. " Don't you know what you 
 are to me? " he whispered, hoarsely. 
 
 She bent down and put her arms about his 
 neck, faltering, " I will try to make you happy. 
 At least you shall never regret marrying me, 
 dear." 
 
 He was careful to alarm her by no outburst 
 of feeling. He realized that he must restrain 
 himself at all hazards ; and she thought it 
 restful to give in and be cared for. 
 
 With his keen perception of what was best 
 for his interests, Kendall, before leaving, in- 
 formed Miss Eastlake of Loys's promise. The 
 marriage was set for noon of the tenth day from
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 77 
 
 that evening, when they would depart at once 
 for the East. 
 
 " I wish your father were here," Loys said. 
 " I know he will be glad ; he always said he 
 loved me as a daughter." 
 
 " We shall see him in London," Kendall 
 answered. " All my intimate friends are away. 
 Van Arsdale and Yorke have not yet returned 
 from Alaska, and Penelope Browning wrote me 
 to-day that she does not expect to be here for 
 another fortnight." 
 
 When he finally left her, and Miss Eastlake, 
 too, had ceased to murmur her regret at losing 
 her, Loys went to her room. 
 
 " And so I am to be Gregory's wife after all," 
 she reflected, as she sat down in the old famil- 
 iar attitude. " When I sat here a short while 
 ago, furnishing the little home, he did not sit 
 opposite me at table, but neither do I know 
 who did. And love I believe it exists only 
 in novels," she asseverated, " so why should I 
 alarm myself over a phantom, the best definition 
 of which I ever read was, ' Nothing, of which 
 one is afraid.' When I think of the married 
 people I know, I cannot fasten upon one who 
 is more in love than I am, perhaps, with 
 Gregory. They all seem to bear each other a
 
 78 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 decorous, proper affection. We leave it to 
 dear unselfish Gregory to be so foolish as to 
 think more of another than of himself. Per- 
 haps I am too self-centered to be capable of 
 an absorbing passion. No, I am not afraid of 
 the consequences of the step I have taken." 
 
 She repeated the thought many times in 
 different form, as if to reassure herself. 
 
 " Love is so often a fictitious emotion," she 
 pursued, " and yet I wish I cared more for him. 
 But every one is agreed that sincere liking 
 endures better than love, so I need not fear," 
 she concluded, as she imprudently began to 
 write to her father and mother. 
 
 The reiteration had dulled her senses. She 
 was determined to close her eyes to the fact 
 that she had reared a house of cards whose 
 foundation rested not on love. 
 
 " Oh, the little more, and how much it is ! 
 And the little less, and what worlds away ! "
 
 Chapter VI. 
 
 |OYS never cared to look back upon the 
 trip to Europe. 
 
 In the short time which had intervened 
 between her engagement and marriage, Kendall 
 had been wise enough not to demand much of 
 her. His delicacy had endeared him to her, 
 but the last vestige of his consideration van- 
 ished when he found she was indissolubly his. 
 He forgot his promise of patience with her 
 until she loved him. He remembered nothing 
 but that she was now his wife, and she smiled 
 in mordant mockery of her confidence in his 
 vain promises, and told herself she must not 
 forget he was her husband. There was, how- 
 ever, small danger of his permitting her to for- 
 get it. 
 
 If he had been content to keep his love 
 more hidden, it is possible Loys might have 
 grown to love him ; but he was too completely 
 overwhelmed by his success in having won her 
 to temper his attentions with nice discretion.
 
 80 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 To have shown him, by the smallest sign, 
 that his neglect of the conditions of his bond 
 fretted her, would have been to recall to him 
 that she had sold herself, and that he was untrue 
 to the spirit of the barter. In a measure, she 
 had forfeited her own self-esteem by the tran- 
 saction, and she was unwilling to recall it to his 
 mind. 
 
 The run through Europe always seemed to 
 Loys, afterward, a hideous nightmare, broken by 
 some few hours of happiness. Kendall ap- 
 peared to be imbued with a desire to see things 
 simply to say he had seen them, and Loys, an 
 unwilling victim, was mercilessly dragged hither 
 and thither, and hurried off again after a tanta- 
 lizing vision of what it had been her life-long 
 dream to study. At first she offered a spirited 
 resistance, and Kendall accommodated himself 
 to her promptings. But her enthusiasm was 
 stultified by his lack of appreciation and evi- 
 dent boredom ; and as she grew to recognize 
 more thoroughly their unshared tastes, she as- 
 sumed, with indifferent success, a stoical ignor- 
 ing of her own wishes and fitted hers to his. 
 She was benumbed with pain when she allowed 
 herself to linger on the disappointment of the 
 trip, and the thought of what it might have been.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 8 1 
 
 In London they met Kendall's father, with 
 whom Loys had always been a great favorite. 
 He could not do enough for her ; but he treated 
 his son coldly, and while with him, Gregory 
 was ill at ease and surly. 
 
 It was at Paris on the fourth day before their 
 return to America that Loys first met Penelope 
 Browning. Loys was alone when Penelope's 
 card was brought to her. Scarcely had she sig- 
 nified her readiness to receive her visitor than 
 Kendall appeared. 
 
 "We shall be detained somewhat," Loys 
 remarked. " Your friend, Miss Browning, is 
 here." 
 
 " Where is the servant ? Tell him that we 
 are not at home," directed Kendall, excitedly. 
 
 It was too late Penelope was even then on 
 the threshold, and he turned to greet her 
 graciously. 
 
 "My being here is another proof of my 
 good-nature," averred Penelope, as she still 
 held Loys's hand. " It is not an easy task to 
 forgive one who has caused so great a disap- 
 pointment as you gave me. Now that I see 
 you, I can scarcely forgive you." 
 
 Loys regarded her in open-eyed amazement. 
 6 r "
 
 82 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 "Tell us how you discovered that we were 
 here," broke in Kendall. 
 
 " I had a letter from Riker Van Arsdale. An 
 all-consuming curiosity to meet you," she 
 went on, turning to Loys, " impelled my 
 visit the moment I learned your hotel. You 
 know it must always remain an enigma to me 
 why you preferred Gregory's chaperonage to 
 mine." 
 
 " I am afraid I am very stupid," Loys ven- 
 tured, smiling in perplexed expectancy, " but I 
 do not understand." 
 
 Kendall gnawed his mustache impatiently, 
 but made no endeavor to explain matters. 
 
 " I believe," began Penelope, laughing softly, 
 "that you are afraid of my just anger. Ah, 
 you should have seen me when I received 
 Gregory's note, saying you thanked me for the 
 invitation, but preferred seeing Europe under 
 his auspices." 
 
 Before the completion of the sentence, a 
 sickening suspicion overcame Loys. She darted 
 one quick, comprehensive glance at her hus- 
 band's disturbed face, and then a fixed, wooden 
 smile settled itself upon her mouth. Afterward 
 she flattered herself that she had acted well, but 
 she did not impose upon the woman opposite
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 83 
 
 her, who would have given much to be able 
 to recall her words. 
 
 " I shall always blame Riker Van Arsdale for 
 not having given me a suggestion as to the 
 unwarrantable insolence of my desires," Pene- 
 lope continued, flowingly. 
 
 " And was the choice I made a wise one ? " 
 asked Loys, placing her hand on Kendall's 
 chair, with a caressing smile. 
 
 As their eyes met, the two women knew each 
 other, and each cried out at the fraud which 
 had been practised. 
 
 Kendall's agitation subsided. He was now 
 glad that Penelope had called, for he had 
 feared the meeting and Loys's anger at his 
 deception. Long ago he had once seen Loys 
 aroused, and it was not an experience he 
 thought he would care to provoke again. 
 Everything had passed so smoothly, he was 
 relieved that he would no longer suffer the 
 suspense. 
 
 Penelope Browning looked from husband to 
 wife in bitter dismay. 
 
 "Some one in San Francisco spoke of this 
 marriage as though she had practised black art 
 to gain him," she meditated, " and said Greg- 
 ory Kendall had thrown himself away on a poor
 
 84 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 school-teacher. Blind fools ! could they not 
 see? Why did I not go to her the night after 
 Laura mentioned her?" 
 
 A short while later she rose to go. 
 
 " I wish you would let me be your guide 
 during the remainder of your stay here," 
 she entreated. " Can you not give me to- 
 morrow?" 
 
 " My days will be crowded with business 
 affairs," Kendall declared, in reply to Loys's 
 questioning eyes, " but I have no doubt Loys 
 will be glad to be under your guardianship." 
 
 " What would Riker Van Arsdale say now? " 
 Penelope pondered, when Kendall had closed 
 the carriage door upon her. " I know Gregory 
 deceived her once ; I wonder if Riker is 
 right : she is an interesting study. Only I wish 
 I could feel that she would not prove interest- 
 ing to the end, that everything in her life 
 would be ordinary and commonplace. It is 
 always safest so. When she laid her hand on 
 his chair " An hysterical little laugh es- 
 caped her. 
 
 Kendall returned to the room with no mis- 
 givings. An indefinable smile was upon Loys's 
 lips as she arranged the chrysanthemums Pene- 
 lope Browning had brought her. He stood
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 85 
 
 watching her in awkward silence for a few 
 moments, then he hazarded : 
 
 " Are you not going to scold me for my 
 deception, Loys?" 
 
 She bent her head to one side, gravely criti- 
 cising her work. 
 
 " Loys, don't say you regret having married 
 me," he cried, a sharp intonation of pain vibrat- 
 ing through his voice. " You don't, my love, 
 do you?" 
 
 " No, no, I do not regret it," she asserted, 
 vehemently, hiding her face on his breast. " I 
 will not regret it." 
 
 A listener would have imagined she was 
 endeavoring to persuade herself rather than 
 him. 
 
 "Tell me," she resumed, after a little, " had 
 you received Miss Browning's note that night I 
 promised to marry you?" 
 
 " Yes. Of course I would have told you of 
 her offer if you had not agreed to be my wife," 
 he affirmed, with virtuous disinterest. He had 
 already shaken from his sloping shoulders all 
 responsibility of wrong-doing. " Afterward 
 there was no need to mention it, was there? " 
 
 There was a moment of passionate contempt, 
 then she shook her head, too spent by conflict-
 
 86 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 ing emotions to contradict him. Already she 
 had learned to suffer and say nothing. 
 
 The dream of what the journey might have 
 been became a reality under Penelope Brown- 
 ing's chaperonage during the few days left 
 them. They seemed to have known each other 
 all their life long. There was no clashing of 
 tastes, no jarring of ideas, although each as- 
 serted her own rich individuality. 
 
 It was on their last afternoon in Paris that 
 Kendall received from Rome a congratulatory 
 letter . from Bishop Yorke, who apologized for 
 his neglect by stating that he had expected to 
 meet them on the continent. He wrote that 
 he had sent Mrs. Kendall a ring which was 
 supposed to have belonged to Lucretia Borgia. 
 The gift arrived at the same time. It was a 
 ring of Etruscan gold, of curious workmanship, 
 which contained five graduated turquoises, of 
 an exquisite blue, set horizontally. Penelope 
 Browning was with Loys when it came to 
 hand. 
 
 "By accident, Mr. Yorke fastened upon my 
 favorite stone," Loys commented. " I hope 
 the turquoises will not change color now that 
 they have come into rny possession." 
 
 " I am not sure that it was an accident,"
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 87 
 
 Penelope protested, nonchalantly. " He once 
 told me that the most becoming stone to a 
 pretty hand is a turquoise or a black intaglio, 
 they bring out the whiteness of the skin. I 
 fancy he remembered what Laura said of your 
 hand." 
 
 "When was that?" queried Loys, flushing 
 slightly. 
 
 "The same night she piqued my curiosity 
 about you. You don't know what a keen 
 admirer you have in Laura Yorke." 
 
 " How immeasurably she did look down 
 upon me ! " Loys scoffed, laughing incredulously. 
 " I was surprised that she saw me, she was so 
 far above me. I envied Laura Yorke her feel- 
 ing of calm superiority over the rank and file, 
 it was an impregnable armor. But I under- 
 stand her brother is not at all like her." 
 
 "I wish you had met him," murmured 
 Penelope Browning.
 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 
 [OYS had not overestimated to herself 
 the charm she would find in a home of 
 her own. 
 
 Upon their return, Kendall had built for her, 
 on the heights of the city, an unconventional 
 house which had about it a strong air of indi- 
 viduality, the result of Loys's frequent con- 
 sultations with the architect. To the furnishing 
 of the house she devoted her best endeavors ; 
 but when it was completed and they took 
 possession of it on that first night, Kendall's 
 approbation more than recompensed her. It 
 was no longer a house : it was a home. 
 
 Her household seemed to run itself, and 
 Loys insisted that it did. 
 
 " All I do is to go round each morning with 
 my little can, to oil up the screws and joints of 
 the machinery," she explained to Kendall and 
 Van Arsdale, one evening at dinner. " Don't 
 imagine I deserve any particular credit : any
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 89 
 
 woman who is not a fool can manage her house- 
 hold well, without much expense of time or trou- 
 ble. I am only careful not to let you see me 
 with the oil-can in my hand and not to seem 
 weighted down with my cares. I was fortunate, 
 too, in securing Mary at the start. When she 
 came to us, nearly everything but a potato in 
 its overcoat was an unknown quantity to her. 
 But now she duplicates every plat known to me 
 with far greater skill than I can master, and 
 you know I claim to be a culinary genius. It 
 is my one natural talent. Every month I say 
 shamefacedly, 'She must not stay any longer; 
 any one would be glad to give her twice what 
 we pay.' It must be quite three months since 
 Mary and I began that pleasant little illusion, 
 and still I make no violent effort to make her 
 go, and she makes none either. I must arouse 
 myself soon, however, and, taking my courage 
 in my hands, send her away." 
 
 When Van Arsdale first commenced to fre- 
 quent the house, Loys was not altogether at 
 her ease with him. She feared she bored him, 
 for his face rarely relaxed into a look of 
 interest ; but when she discovered that he called 
 upon no other woman, and came to her as often 
 as twice a week, and sent her books and papers
 
 90 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 he had marked, she ceased to doubt his liking 
 for her. 
 
 They were mutually attracted intellectually; 
 but she told him, after a while, as well as 
 Kendall, the happenings of her day, her house- 
 hold experiences, and her trials and failures. 
 She never forgot, or allowed any one to forget, 
 that she was primarily a woman. 
 
 She fostered Kendall's ambition, and made 
 him proud enough of her good opinion to seek 
 to win it ; and when he saw his own progress 
 and the stride forward he had made in the 
 minds of those whose views he respected, he 
 felt proud of himself, as well as of his wife, 
 whose influence he recognized. 
 
 She loved peace, but believed it can be pur- 
 chased at too high a price ; she was, however, 
 at all times tactful. When she won Kendall 
 over, she wore no conscious air of triumph, and 
 when she yielded, she did so unconditionally 
 and gracefully. His friends remarked Kendall's 
 improvement ; and he had improve^ for Loys 
 had not hesitated to correct those faults it was 
 possible to mention to him, without wounding 
 him unutterably, as she expected him to cor- 
 rect her. 
 
 She had not deceived herself in regard to
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 91 
 
 her literary work. Upon returning from Europe, 
 she continued her novel, and brought it to com- 
 pletion within four months. Riker Van Ars- 
 dale aided her much by his criticism, for she 
 read the manuscript to him and Kendall before 
 sending it to be typewritten. It was immedi- 
 ately accepted by one of the foremost houses 
 of New York, and, upon its appearance, proved 
 to be one of the successes of the year. 
 
 And yet, somehow, her success left her dis- 
 satisfied and cold. She now possessed the one 
 thing she had thought essential to her happi- 
 ness, success. It may have been that this 
 tingling wine had been too long kept in view, 
 and that she had overestimated its qualities, or 
 perhaps it had been too long in the pouring 
 out and the air had reached it ; for when the 
 glass was held to her lips, the wine was flat. 
 It had all seemed so much better in anticipa- 
 tion that she wondered dully if it could have 
 been for this tepid feeling of gratification that 
 she had so striven and hungered. 
 
 Penelope Browning had returned shortly 
 before the appearance of the novel, and again 
 taken up her abode in her magnificent resi- 
 dence just a block or two from the Kendall's. 
 The intimacy had been kept warm by numerous
 
 92 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 letters, and Penelope quickly insinuated herself 
 into the sunniest compartments of Loys's affec- 
 tions. 
 
 Penelope took as much satisfaction in Loys's 
 success as if she herself had written the book, 
 and was inclined to quarrel with Loys on 
 account of her apathetic acceptance of her 
 good-fortune. 
 
 Two or three months after the appearance of 
 the book there came to Loys the greatest happi- 
 ness which can befall a woman. She jealously 
 guarded the trembling hope to herself for a 
 short time, but finally told Kendall. She was 
 thrown back upon herself by his manner of 
 receiving the intelligence ; but not even his lack 
 of warmth, his jealousy at the thought of divid- 
 ing her love with another, could lessen her 
 quiet joy. Penelope Browning's words seemed 
 cold and forced to Loys, but they did not 
 wound her. She was already transfigured by 
 her coming glory, and felt only a vague pity 
 for Kendall and Penelope, because they could 
 not fully enter into her great happiness. 
 
 Kendall's temper was nervous and uneven 
 about that time, but Loys never once was impa- 
 tient. Nothing seemed to fret or disturb her ; 
 but in the early part of May she began to long
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 93 
 
 for the country, and as Kendall was called East 
 at that moment on important business, she 
 accepted Penelope's invitation to spend the 
 summer quietly with her in her cottage at Ross 
 Valley. They did no entertaining whatever, 
 yet to both the summer slipped away only too 
 rapidly. 
 
 In the latter part of August they returned to 
 the city, and Loys seemed to miss the long 
 days spent in the open air ; but she made no 
 murmur, even to her mother, who was making 
 her a visit of indefinite length. 
 
 Loys had been so brave and patient all along, 
 and so free from fear, that she had imbued 
 those around her with her spirit ; but in Sep- 
 tember they almost lost her, as well as the child, 
 whose life was sacrificed for the mother's. 
 
 She regained her strength slowly ; there seemed 
 an utter want of desire to live. There was no 
 battling with her grief or weariness. Death 
 appeared to her a blessed relief; but when at 
 length she found that it does not come because 
 of the wishing, and her tired brain realized the 
 agony she was causing those who loved her, 
 she shook off her lethargy. Little by little she 
 resumed her duties, and strove with fine courage 
 to forget the ordeal she had undergone. Not
 
 94 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 even to Kendall did she ever refer to her 
 sorrow. She could not forget that he had 
 failed to rejoice with her, and she endeavored 
 to rid herself of the impression that both he 
 and Penelope, as well as Kendall's father, had 
 been relieved that the child had not lived. 
 
 Her physician, Dr. Haswell, who took a 
 strong interest in her, wished her to go out; 
 but at first she found it impossible to do so. 
 Then Kendall began to evince a desire for 
 society ; but neither he nor Penelope Browning 
 would go without her, and Loys, who could 
 fathom their suddenly conceived tastes, threw 
 aside her distaste for meeting people, and 
 began to frequent the world once again.
 
 Chapter VIII. 
 
 IENELOPE BROWNING had enter- 
 tained at dinner that evening a party 
 of fourteen. There were originally to have 
 been sixteen, but during the afternoon Ken- 
 dall had telephoned her that Loys was not well, 
 and he wished Penelope would tell her she 
 was not to make the effort of attending the 
 dinner. 
 
 Penelope had smothered her discomfiture 
 and followed out his instructions, professing 
 a great surprise at seeing Loys extended on 
 the couch. 
 
 " You are not to dream of making the effort 
 of sitting so long at table," she had good- 
 naturedly said, "but manage to come at ten for 
 an hour or two. I wish you were not feeling 
 ill. I intended you to go in to dinner with 
 Bishop Yorke. I am very anxious to have you 
 meet Bishop and the Lidderdales." 
 
 The coffee had been served in the drawing- 
 room, and Penelope had cast many a glance
 
 96 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 in the direction of the door before Loys and 
 Kendall made their appearance. 
 
 "I began to think you had deserted me," 
 exclaimed Penelope, as she advanced to meet 
 them. 
 
 " I am not sure that I was wise to bring 
 Loys," returned Kendall, regarding his wife 
 with anxious eyes. 
 
 " We are attracting every one's attention," 
 demurred Loys. " I am only a trifle fagged 
 from mounting the steps. May I sit next to 
 Mr. Van Arsdale until I recover myself? " 
 
 They certainly had drawn the attention of 
 the company to themselves. Kendall had 
 grown somewhat stouter in the two years of 
 his marriage, but he was still a very handsome 
 man, and as he crossed the room to welcome 
 Bishop Yorke, his face was illumined by a smile 
 of pleasure, which made one instinctively feel 
 his good-nature. 
 
 Loys had always had an individual charm. 
 She was an interesting-looking woman, rather 
 than a strictly handsome one, and that night 
 she was looking remarkably striking. The 
 other women present were all in light-colored 
 gowns, but Loys wore a gown of some sheer 
 black material, which was slightly open at the
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 97 
 
 throat. A bunch of violets drooped at her 
 breast. 
 
 " Do you know," she began to Van Arsdale, 
 " when I came in I felt every separate eye in 
 the room upon me." 
 
 " You looked unabashed by the gaze of the 
 select public." 
 
 "Happily, the cunning of a blush is, with 
 me, to be numbered among the lost arts. 
 Again, I felt I could bear the most rigorous 
 criticism. I am iron-clad in the knowledge 
 that I indulged myself in a leisurely toilet, and 
 that the mirror was kind to me to-night," she 
 confessed, with bare-faced assurance. 
 
 " Be more guarded. What would you say if 
 I should tell you that a piece of soot embellished 
 your nose?" 
 
 " Merely that you were exercising a luxuriant 
 imagination," she returned, with exasperating 
 serenity. "I scrutinized myself before enter- 
 ing." 
 
 "It must be delightfully comfortable to be 
 so satisfied with one's self," sighed Van Ars- 
 dale. 
 
 "It is, and so novel. I have come to the 
 conclusion that it does not do to be too honest 
 with one's self. Of course the tall, exceedingly 
 7
 
 98 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 well-groomed looking man upon whom Gregory 
 is beaming is Mr. Yorke." 
 
 " Yes. You will be glad to learn he is going 
 to make this his resting-place for a while. His 
 affairs here need attention. I imagine you two 
 will be great friends." 
 
 " I know what it will mean for you to have 
 him. I do not know that I believe in luck, but 
 life is certainly made easier for some people 
 than for others, and it has been made easy for 
 Mr. Yorke, has n't it ? I never knew until 
 to-night that he was a lawyer and at one time 
 connected with Mr. Warner." 
 
 " His association with Warner lasted little 
 over a year, and then because of his skill with 
 his pen and brush he drifted into his connection 
 with the magazine people. It was Warner's 
 fault." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "Yorke was young and enthusiastic, and 
 beneath Warner's successful methods he did 
 not know he would find such unscrupulousness 
 countenanced under the name of business. He 
 had long had a strong dislike for Warner, and 
 one morning, when every clerk in the office was 
 wishing he would win in the lottery or suddenly 
 fall heir to a modest competency, that he might
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 99 
 
 quit Warner's employ, Yorke, being rich enough 
 to indulge himself in the luxury of retaining 
 his own self-respect, walked in upon Warner 
 and announced his intention of withdrawing 
 from the firm." 
 
 "Tell me what had happened," Loys com- 
 manded. 
 
 " It was something in this wise," Van Arsdale 
 kindly proceeded, noting that her breath was 
 still coming and going too quickly. " One of 
 the junior clerks, who occupied the same office 
 with Warner, inadvertently hung his topcoat on 
 Warner's rack, and Warner took the fire-tongs, 
 placed the coat upon them, and carried them 
 out into the office." 
 
 " What ! Yet I suppose Mr. Warner considers 
 himself a gentleman." 
 
 "No, I think not. Warner is really too 
 bright a man to so delude himself," maintained 
 Van Arsdale, dryly. 
 
 At that moment Penelope broke in upon 
 them with Yorke. 
 
 "What have you two been speaking of so 
 earnestly?" she demanded, after presenting 
 Yorke to Loys. 
 
 "Do not ask," kindly prompted Yorke. 
 "Can you not see from Riker's self-conscious
 
 100 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 air that he has been speaking of us, and not all 
 good?" 
 
 " What a comfortable possession is an easy 
 conscience ! " laughed Loys. " Here you are, 
 Penelope, wondering whether we can have dis- 
 covered and' been discussing your latest indis- 
 cretion, while I should have been perfectly at 
 ease if you had been speaking of me, safe in 
 the knowledge there is no evil to be whispered 
 of me." 
 
 "And I too," chimed in Van Arsdale. 
 
 " I am afraid that if you were to come out 
 in your true colors, you would go round in a 
 yellow cover, like the French novels," Yorke 
 averred. 
 
 Penelope and Van Arsdale wandered away. 
 
 " Do you know that you caused me a great 
 disappointment by your default? " Yorke con- 
 tinued, still standing. " Penelope had promised 
 me your company at dinner." 
 
 Loys laid her hand upon the chair beside her 
 own, and smiled up at him. 
 
 " Probably we would be more comfortable 
 if I were seated," he agreed, smiling in turn. 
 " I too often forget my inconvenient length. 
 I shall impress you with the idea that I should 
 be more at ease if I took a seat upon the
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. IOI 
 
 mantel ; these low chairs were never meant for 
 a man of my size." 
 
 " And so you have concluded to sit upon your 
 own hearth-rug and purr," she ventured. 
 
 "Yes. It seems my affairs require supervi- 
 sion, and I am not grieving that I am no longer 
 to be like Noah's dove, lighting here and there, 
 only to be again on the wing." 
 
 " I hope you, too, come with an olive leaf in 
 your mouth." 
 
 " Do I not look like a man with a seraphic 
 temperament ? " 
 
 " I am not prepared to hazard an opinion," 
 she asserted, after a meditative pause, making a 
 pretence of studying his features. 
 
 Yorke had entered life under the charter of 
 success. From his cradle his charm had been 
 undisputed. He could remember nothing he 
 had wished for which had been withheld. His 
 honors had come to him without labor ; that he 
 took the highest degree in his class, that he was 
 considered the first stroke in his team, were 
 nothing to his credit, his classmates protested. 
 He had been born with a fine amount of intelli- 
 gence, with a magnificent physique, and with the 
 proverbial golden spoon in his mouth ; moreover, 
 it bore a crest. There had been times when it
 
 102 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 had seemed that his banner might be over- 
 thrown, but his indomitable will and persever- 
 ence had won the battle. He had come to 
 consider success as his birthright. 
 
 " I remember dreaming once of being way- 
 laid by a highwayman, and his face wore the 
 same expression of grim determination as does 
 Mr. Yorke's money or your life, it said. He 
 would have something. I am convinced he 
 never has vain wishes, only invincible wills," 
 Loys mused. 
 
 "Has not my reputation preceded me?" 
 Yorke went on. " I had hoped Kendall or 
 Penelope would have told you all about me." 
 
 "Hoped?" echoed Loys, raising her level 
 brows. " Most of us would rather imagine we 
 had not been discussed beforehand." 
 
 " Perhaps the fact that Penelope and I have 
 been friends for more than twenty years will 
 attest my first statement." 
 
 " Not at all. Penelope is forgiving in the 
 extreme. I have never been able to entice her 
 into the least semblance of a quarrel. Yet I do 
 not plume myself upon my good-nature, nor 
 have I heard any one else mention it. But," 
 she added, with a deprecatory sigh of comical 
 resignation, "I never expect to be properly
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 103 
 
 appreciated by any one but myself until I am 
 in my grave." 
 
 "Grave?" he repeated. " I trust cremation 
 will have become an assured fact before I die." 
 
 " Have you ever thought that they might bury 
 you while you were still alive ? I have. I 
 am going to hang a placard upon my bed, as 
 did Hans Andersen, ' Don't bury me ; I think I 
 am alive.' I hope they will cremate me." 
 
 " If I get to the crematory first, I shall ask 
 that you be appointed first stoker," put in 
 Kendall, leaning over her. 
 
 " I am trying to convince Gregory," she pur- 
 sued, unheeding her husband's frivolity, "that 
 cremation is a much cleaner and more humane 
 course than burial, but my efforts are greeted 
 with but small success. I imagine Gregory 
 believes that to speak of my demise would hasten 
 it." 
 
 Kendall sauntered away. He had a childish 
 objection to speaking of death. 
 
 " At least, cremation is more economical," 
 Yorke allowed, " and Kendall could keep you 
 on the chimney-piece in a beautiful urn, and 
 murmur to visitors, 'There slumbers my be- 
 loved wife.' A large family need have but 
 one good-sized urn. I wonder if on the Day
 
 IO4 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 of Judgment the contents of that urn would turn 
 out a composite figure." 
 
 They laughed together at his conceit, and 
 Loys, who had been slipping her rings on and 
 off her fingers, at that moment dropped the 
 turquoise. 
 
 " Thank you," she murmured, as he restored 
 it to her. "Do you recognize your gift? It 
 was more than kind to send it to me, for you 
 must have had some friend who would have 
 welcomed it, on account of its historical associa- 
 tions, with as much appreciation as I." 
 
 " As soon as I saw it, I knew it was intended 
 for you. You see, Laura had described you to 
 us one night in this very house. Do you still 
 retain your love for Heine?" 
 
 " How did you know he was one of my favor- 
 ites?" she queried, in turn. 
 
 There crept into his eyes, too, an expression 
 of blank surprise. 
 
 " Surely," he thought, " she must be aware I 
 know of her admiration for the man, else why 
 should I have sent her that book ? " 
 
 " Again my information came through Laura," 
 he pursued, aloud. "She has a strong regard 
 for you." 
 
 Loys smothered her astonishment.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 105 
 
 "Almost the first German work I read was 
 ' The Book Le Grand/ which I found simple 
 because I knew it so well in the English. I 
 still have that battered, annotated little volume, 
 which is so dear to me that, although I have 
 continually determined to buy another, I never 
 do." 
 
 He regarded her curiously, then glanced 
 across the room at his sister, whose eyes were 
 at that second fixed upon them. 
 
 " Loys," Penelope began, coming up to them, 
 " Mrs. Lidderdale is very anxious to meet you. 
 You had no right, Bishop, to monopolize Mrs. 
 Kendall in your selfish fashion." 
 
 " I am afraid it was I who monopolized Mr. 
 Yorke. You must not let me be so thoughtless 
 another time," smiled Loys, turning away. 
 
 At Penelope's solicitation, the man who sat 
 next to Laura Yorke went to the piano, and 
 Yorke sank into the vacant place. When the 
 song came to an end, Yorke turned to his sister, 
 saying, " Do you remember my once giving you 
 a work of Heine for " 
 
 " Don't go on," the girl interrupted. " I 
 remember all the incidents : they are unpleas- 
 antly impressed upon my memory. I tried to 
 confess a day or two after you gave me the book,
 
 106 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 but my courage failed me. I clumsily over- 
 turned a bottle of ink, which thoroughly satu- 
 rated the book. As Miss Yerrington I mean 
 Mrs. Kendall had a distaste for soiled volumes, 
 I made no mention of it to her, and, as I before 
 told you, I was afraid, at the time, of your dis- 
 pleasure. Are you very angry? " 
 
 A half-smile parted his lips : it was not alto- 
 gether a pleasant smile, and under it Laura grew 
 slightly discomposed. 
 
 " I never before knew you were a coward," 
 he finally observed. It was a long time since 
 she had seen Yorke so aroused. 
 
 " You seem to doubt my having overturned 
 the ink," she commented, haughtily. 
 
 He measured her with partially closed eyes, 
 then walked away. 
 
 She complacently arranged the roses at her 
 waist. Ah, it had not been so foolish, after all, 
 to be afraid of Loys Yerrington. 
 
 As Loys and Kendall walked home that even- 
 ing, she said, " Penelope was at her best 
 to-night. What were you two last laughing 
 about?" 
 
 " At what do you suppose ? At some remark 
 of her own," Kendall observed, with some 
 little asperity. "There is nothing more unbe-
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. IO7 
 
 coming a woman than cleverness ; that is, 
 unless she is clever enough to conceal it. No 
 trait becomes more quickly offensive than the 
 brilliancy of which a person is conscious and 
 with which she desires to impress others. I 
 don't like clever women." 
 
 Loys declined to construe his statement as a 
 reflection upon herself. 
 
 " You cannot be speaking with Penelope in 
 mind," she protested, with rare loyalty to her 
 friend. 
 
 Kendall had wasted upon Penelope that 
 night two witticisms which had been capable of 
 arousing even his own fastidious approval, and 
 an epigram which had never before failed to 
 make a deep impression, yet she had noticed 
 them by only a perfunctory smile. She had been 
 either completely absorbed in her laughter 
 over some remark of her own, or had been 
 waiting with visible impatience until he should 
 finish speaking, when she intended to give 
 utterance to one of her own carefully prepared 
 impromptu effects, which he saw trembling 
 upon her lips. It was, therefore, with a due 
 appreciation of his own blessings that he felt 
 Loys's arm within his own. Loys belonged to 
 that almost extinct race of beings which is not
 
 108 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 swayed by an overwhelming desire to be the 
 actor, never the audience. 
 
 " Here we are at our own door. Let us 
 walk round the block, Gregory. It is a crime 
 to waste such a perfect night in sleep." 
 
 " No," he returned, resolutely, " I am not 
 going to encourage you in your owl-like habits. 
 I did not enjoy this evening so thoroughly that 
 I desire to prolong it." 
 
 " But I did," she asserted, wilfully, resisting 
 the arm he placed about her in an endeavor to 
 draw her over the threshold. " Take your arm 
 away, or the conductor and engineer on the 
 next passing dummy will think I am the cook 
 and that you are her young man." 
 
 She gazed up at the star-lit, cloudless sky, 
 her eyes dwelling gratefully upon the splendor 
 of the new-born moon. 
 
 "Of what are you thinking?" Kendall whis- 
 pered, enfolding her closer. 
 
 She slipped away, laughing mischievously, 
 and pointed to the crescent-moon, about which 
 the luminous halo was vigorously marked. 
 
 " Only that though this January has been like 
 our usual February weather, I am afraid it 
 intends to rain to-morrow night, simply to give 
 our guests a chance to soil our new rugs."
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 109 
 
 Then she followed him into the house, 
 vaguely wondering why she had spoken of the 
 weather when she knew she had been thinking 
 of Bishop Yorke. She would ask Penelope 
 how he came by the sabre scar on his forehead. 
 The story escaped her. She knew he had 
 received the wound through risking his life for 
 another, but for whom she could not think. 
 
 Penelope would know.
 
 Chapter IX. 
 * 
 
 |RS. LUTTRELL was undeniably sleeping 
 when Yorke was announced. The 
 book in her lap dropped to the floor at her 
 precipitate start. 
 
 "Is it you, Bishop?" she asked, blinking 
 drowsily upon him. " Penelope is dining at the 
 Kendall's to-night, but she left word that if 
 you came early you were to join her there. I 
 shall call for you at half-past ten, to take you to 
 the Trotter's." 
 
 Yorke debated a moment. It was quite 
 clear that Mrs. Luttrell was not anxious for his 
 company ; and as Loys had never invited him 
 to call, he did not know that he cared to enter 
 her home unasked. 
 
 "You will enjoy yourself at the Kendall's," 
 garrulously ran on Mrs. Luttrell, " for Loys 
 really understands what home should be. If 
 there were more such women, we should hear 
 less of divorce suits and marriage being a fail- 
 ure ; but then she has rather antiquated ideas
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. Ill 
 
 about a wife's duties. Penelope told her that 
 she intended to leave word that you were to 
 follow her. Loys was very glad to think you 
 were coming." 
 
 Yorke found himself at the Kendall's door 
 before he had fully decided whether he was wise 
 to follow his inclinations in obeying Penelope's 
 orders. 
 
 The maid opened the door, and he stood 
 within the pretty hall, which was disfigured by 
 a carved clock, so magnificent and tall that it 
 appeared quite out of place. Yorke was, in a 
 manner, disappointed by the sight of the clock. 
 As he walked forward, Kendall espied him, and 
 came to meet him. 
 
 The portieres of the living-room were drawn 
 apart, showing Penelope and Van Arsdale in 
 coldly critical attitudes before Loys, who was 
 reclining in a broad, white wicker chair, wrapped 
 in Penelope's evening cloak, which was of some 
 rich white material, heavy with fur. 
 
 " It should make a good picture," announced 
 Penelope, slowly. " You will wear that quaint 
 white gown of yours, and the cloak must be 
 slipping from yo/ir shoulders. Oh, here is Mr. 
 Yorke ! Come, give us the value of your opinion. 
 Sit still a moment, Loys. I do not know why
 
 112 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 it is that Mrs. Kendall takes such an unsatis- 
 factory picture. I can succeed with every one 
 but her. If this one does not please me, I warn 
 you, it will be my last attempt to transfix you." 
 
 "If success does crown your efforts, it will 
 all be due to the cloak," observed Loys, rising. 
 " It is capable of transforming an ugly woman 
 into a pretty one." 
 
 Her mutable face had colored under their 
 prolonged inspection, but she advanced to meet 
 Yorlce without a trace of discomposure. She 
 was sincerely glad to see him, and made him 
 feel her pleasure in a well-chosen word or two. 
 
 It was a room which wore no formidable air 
 of order. It was lined with bookcases, and 
 above them hung a few fine etchings, together 
 with a picture or two by a young local artist of 
 whom Loys expected great things. Two price- 
 less Coula rugs (Penelope's wedding offering) 
 served as portieres, and lent a matchless bit of 
 color. The three or four palms growing in the 
 room were cunningly placed next the bronzes 
 and dainty tea- equipage, for Loys was too much 
 of an artist to be unmindful of the details of 
 her background. Some China lilies were abloom 
 in pretty bowls, for it was the month of February, 
 when every other bay-window in San Francisco
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 113 
 
 was aglow with these flowers ; but all the air was 
 violet, for bunches of the California variety, 
 with its luxurious length of stem, had been 
 scattered about. The room was lit by the shaded 
 radiance of lamps and the soft glow of the fire. 
 
 Kendall had taken possession of the divan, 
 and lazily leaned one elbow upon the luxurious 
 mass of cushions. 
 
 As Yorke was about to seat himself, Loys 
 moved forward an inviting arm-chair, saying, 
 " You will be more at ease here, and we wish 
 you to be comfortable, that you may feel the 
 desire to come often." 
 
 She seated herself near him, at the same 
 time passing Penelope a cut-glass dish which 
 contained chocolates. 
 
 " You might as well be introduced to all our 
 bad habits at once, I suppose," she went on, 
 doubtfully, offering Yorke the sweets. " I am 
 afraid we begin to nibble candies as soon as we 
 have finished dining." 
 
 Afterward Yorke learned to know that the 
 little dish was always supplied with sweets, but 
 that when it was offered to a guest making a 
 first call, it was the signal that Loys had ad- 
 mitted him to her friendship. She thought 
 people became better acquainted while eating.
 
 114 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 "Am I not to have any candies?" asked 
 Kendall. 
 
 " Do exercise some restraint," admonished 
 Penelope. " You know what we told you a 
 while ago." 
 
 " They insist that I am growing too stout," 
 explained Kendall, " and want me to ride a 
 bicycle. What do you think, Yorke ? " 
 
 " That the pruning-knife might be applied 
 judiciously," hazarded Yorke. "You know, 
 you can carry a good thing too far." 
 
 " My mouth, for example," cited Penelope. 
 
 " If you would only walk down town in the 
 mornings," Loys recommended. " But the 
 hills are appalling, I admit, and with a cable 
 line on almost every street, it is next to impos- 
 sible to hold to one's good resolutions to 
 walk." 
 
 " It must be very comfortable to eat as much 
 as one desires without an uneasy vision of the 
 extra pounds of flesh," sighed Kendall, from 
 his lounging-place. " Is n't it, Van Arsdale ? " 
 
 Loys moved uneasily. She detested per- 
 sonalities. Kendall's bland question, however, 
 excited only a laugh, for Van Arsdale's tenuity 
 was a jest of old standing. 
 
 " It is," Van Arsdale returned. " By the
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 115 
 
 way, to-day I heard the most unkind remark 
 passed upon me since the time some one said 
 I was to be arrested for having no visible means 
 of support. A friend of mine wondered if I 
 did not answer Thackeray's description of 
 George IV., ' a waistcoat, an under waistcoat, 
 another under waistcoat, and then nothing.' " 
 
 "Who could have told you? " cried Penelope, 
 naively. 
 
 " It was you then? " murmured Van Arsdale, 
 amid the laughter. 
 
 Penelope flushed angrily at her stupidity and 
 tried to fasten upon the one to whom she had 
 made the luckless remark. 
 
 Yorke came to her rescue by referring to the 
 concert they had all attended the previous night, 
 and then they fell to speaking of San Fran- 
 cisco's backwardness. Yorke was the city's 
 only champion. 
 
 "To me San Francisco has forged ahead 
 artistically," he affirmed. "The creditable art 
 loan exhibitions you have had, and of which I 
 have heard, show there are a number of fine 
 pictures in our midst. It is true, we have only 
 the nucleus of a museum, but the rest will come 
 with time. And I know that twenty years ago 
 New York was almost destitute in that regard
 
 Il6 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 also. The dramatic taste of the public here is 
 discreet, although unreliable. It is in music 
 that you have made progress, though I know 
 you will not admit it, because you were unable 
 to support an excellent though low-priced or- 
 chestra. A few years ago the symphony con- 
 certs, which were so well attended, would have 
 proved a signal failure. Why, Van Arsdale, 
 you must remember when Emma Abbott was 
 the ideal of the city, and the music critic of 
 our best paper exhausted his vocabulary of 
 flattering epithets upon her, and was forced, 
 upon hearing Patti, to confess his former 
 ignorance." 
 
 Loys lured him on to speak of the Lamou- 
 reux concerts, and he played a morceau or two 
 to emphasize or illustrate some point. 
 
 " The feeling of professional jealousy rife 
 here will tend to keep you back," he went on. 
 " The musicians should learn from the organi- 
 zations of musical centres that every violin can- 
 not be first, that " 
 
 He paused, listening to the sound of a piano, 
 which could be heard as distinctly as though it 
 were in the next room. The others were equally 
 silent ; only Kendall moved impatiently. 
 
 " It is the piano next door," he volunteered,
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 117 
 
 as the last note died away. " On that side our 
 house is wedged close to the adjoining one, for 
 we wished every available inch we could gain 
 for the lawn. Loys has got us into the habit of 
 keeping silence when our neighbor plays that 
 song." 
 
 " It is heart-breaking," exclaimed Penelope, 
 petulantly, striving to throw off the spell of the 
 music. " Do you know what it is, Bishop? " 
 
 " It is quite unfamiliar to me," he returned. 
 He played the closing bars, then frowned : 
 "You are right, Pen; it is heart-reaching. 
 But how is it that you do not know the name of 
 the composer?" 
 
 Loys awoke from a dream at finding herself 
 addressed. 
 
 " We are not anxious to know our neighbors, 
 and, you see, it would be quite impossible for 
 me to ring their bell, and, if the musician 
 opened the door, to sing a few bars of the 
 song, inquire its name, and come away." 
 
 He played the haunting bars once again ; 
 they clung to his memory with tenacious 
 persistence. 
 
 It was growing late, and Penelope drew on 
 her gloves in anticipation of Mrs. Luttrell's 
 arrival.
 
 Il8 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 " Are you going to Mrs. Boyson's cotillon 
 to-morrow night, Penelope?" asked Van 
 Arsdale. 
 
 " No ; we expect you to come to amuse us," 
 she returned. 
 
 "Who is Mrs. Boyson?" queried Yorke. 
 "It is a new name to me." 
 
 " An extremely intelligent woman, who is 
 painfully clambering up the ladder of society," 
 explained Penelope, revolving before the glass 
 in a last tour of inspection. " I once over- 
 heard her inquire for some retrousse silver, 
 she prides herself upon her articles Qivertu" 
 
 " She may lack grace of manner, but she is 
 a truly good woman," interposed Van Arsdale. 
 
 "We do not doubt it, though we would 
 rather be left in ignorance of the fact," Pene- 
 lope acceded, " for when a woman of her stamp 
 is good, she is oppressively so. I hate uncom- 
 promising goodness." 
 
 "If she only entertains, the young people 
 will look upon her as God-sent," laughed Yorke. 
 "Or are the hostesses more hospitable than 
 was their former wont?" 
 
 " Probably more entertaining would be done 
 if the men accepted the invitations without so 
 much the grand manner of conferring an honor,"
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 1 19 
 
 pursued Penelope. " For days here they leave 
 one awaiting a reply to a dinner invitation, and 
 yet they pride themselves upon their acquaint- 
 ance with les convenances. Don't laugh to-night 
 when you see me being led through the figures 
 by boys in their nonage ; the only men in the 
 rooms will be the officers from the Presidio. 
 Your age will not militate against you to-night, 
 Bishop." 
 
 " Henry James's problem, ' To whom shall we 
 marry our daughters?' has reached here then," 
 observed Yorke. " Well, as we grow more and 
 more luxurious every day, it is not astonishing 
 that marriage is relegated to the lower circles. 
 Ah, here is the carriage." 
 
 Yorke enfolded Penelope in her cloak, and 
 Loys gave the last touch to her hair. 
 
 "Try to hide the fact that you deem yourself 
 superior to your partners, Pen," were Van 
 Arsdale's last words. 
 
 She unfurled her huge white fan, and swept 
 him an exaggerated courtesy. 
 
 " It would not be becoming for me to assume 
 an air of imperturbable wisdom. It would 
 accord ill with my length of years." 
 
 " Good-night, dear," said Loys to Penelope; 
 " do not work too hard at enjoying yourself."
 
 120 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 " Poor old lady," purred Penelope to Mrs. 
 Luttrell as she entered the carriage ; " it is 
 cruel to keep you up so late." 
 
 "This is all done for your benefit, Bishop," 
 affirmed Mrs. Luttrell. " For weeks at a time 
 she has kept me from bed until the stars have 
 faded from the sky, and never before was there 
 a murmur of compunction. What do you 
 think of Mrs. Kendall?" 
 
 " How did she ever come to marry Greg- 
 ory?" he demanded. "Did she not know?" 
 
 All the light and warmth died out of Pene- 
 lope's face. 
 
 " It seems impossible to believe she did not 
 know what was so well-known; but I do not 
 think she did. Even after her marriage, Riker 
 said she must have been aware of it, but he is 
 no longer so confident. In all innocence we 
 have heard her discuss subjects which make us, 
 with our knowledge, turn faint and sick at 
 heart. Every time I touch Gregory Kendall's 
 hand, I feel myself the greatest hypocrite in the 
 world. I have to pretend that I like him to 
 have the right to be near Loys, but I loathe 
 What good do my words do?" 
 
 Yorke's face had grown set and stern. They 
 were silent for a time, then Yorke, to divert
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 121 
 
 them, said, "Why, why has she that clock in 
 that small hall?" 
 
 " Oh, that clock ! " laughed Penelope. " If 
 some one would only steal it some night, how 
 relieved Loys would be. You see, old Mr. 
 Kendall heard her admire ours, and he straight- 
 way ordered the handsomest one he could find. 
 Loys has to be very careful in what she says 
 before him, for he gets her everything for 
 which she expresses a desire. He worships 
 her as much as does Gregory, only there is 
 something pitiful in his love. The clock is a 
 nightmare to Loys ; she thinks it gives people 
 a. wrong impression of her." 
 
 "Why doesn't she place it elsewhere?" 
 inquired Mrs. Luttrell. 
 
 " For fear of wounding the old gentleman," 
 answered Penelope. " As a usual thing, I hate 
 to acknowledge that there are others better or 
 wiser than I, but I freely confess that Loys is."
 
 Chapter X. 
 
 ]PON his return to San Francisco, Yorke 
 was engaged in gathering together the 
 loose ends of his many interests, for he discov- 
 ered that his affairs required his own supervision 
 if he wished to enjoy the right to spend money 
 freely, the one purpose for which he valued it. 
 He was given to saying that he suffered from a 
 constitutional "inclination to do nothing," yet 
 his consuming energy made light tasks before 
 which others would have faltered. 
 
 At her suggestion, he had taken up his resi- 
 dence with his step-mother. She was a coldly 
 intelligent woman, who had lavished upon her 
 husband the one love of her life, and yet con- 
 trived to render him exquisitely wretched. 
 
 All unselfishness impossible to her was alike 
 impossible to every one else, although she con- 
 ferred upon Bishop Yorke, because of his father, 
 a greater latitude than she permitted others. 
 She had never been guilty of a single warm 
 impulse, and consequently thought all uncon-
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 123 
 
 ventionality vulgar. Yorke made no attempt 
 to revolutionize her theories, but was forced to 
 assume a quizzical air of infinite amusement 
 at the absolute monarchy the two women had 
 formed. 
 
 Upon Yorke's advent, Riker Van Arsdale 
 found his way once in a while to the Yorke's. 
 He confided to Penelope Browning that he 
 found Laura shallow. Penelope arched her 
 brows in wonderment, and warned him that 
 shallows are often dangerous. 
 
 Yorke entered his mother's sitting-room that 
 afternoon, saying, " Laura, Pen and Van Arsdale 
 are outside, and we would like you to go to 
 the Park with us." 
 
 "Did Penelope propose my going?" she 
 asked. 
 
 "Yes. We called for Mrs. Kendall, and 
 when we found she was not at home, Penelope 
 said we must come for you," he answered, with 
 stupid truthfulness. On the instant he realized 
 his blunder. 
 
 "Thank Pen for her thoughtfulness," said 
 Laura ; " but, after all, now that the horses are 
 ordered, it will be as well to use them, and I 
 know mamma will not go without me." 
 
 " Of course you know best," granted Yorke.
 
 124 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 If Laura had expected him to coax her, she had 
 made a mistake. He never tried to coerce any 
 one ; he thought his friends possibly knew their 
 own minds better than he could know them. 
 
 " Penelope is completely infatuated with Mrs. 
 Kendall," observed Mrs. Yorke. " She always 
 had a strange liking for original people, and I 
 suppose Mrs. Kendall simply made her literary 
 work the staircase to her higher ambitions." 
 
 Yorke regarded her in eloquent dismay. For 
 once he was not amused by her original mode 
 of thought. Words trembled upon his lips 
 which he restrained with difficulty. Of what 
 avail would it be to hurl his diatribe at her? 
 It would fall ineffectually upon her blunted 
 senses. She was quite unable to comprehend 
 the enormity of her offences. 
 
 " I suppose Penelope's peculiarity can be 
 accounted for on the ground that she is John 
 Browning's daughter," mused Mrs. Yorke. 
 " He never was happy unless patronizing some 
 one." 
 
 " John Browning never was guilty of patron- 
 izing any one," corrected Yorke, with ominous 
 quiet. " And Pen is quite conscious of the favor 
 she enjoys in Mrs. Kendall's friendship." 
 
 "My dear Bishop, you forget," reminded
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 125 
 
 Mrs. Yorke, with a smile of superior pity, " that 
 Mrs. Kendall is the daughter, I believe, of some 
 poor farmer in Contra Costa County " 
 
 Yorke basely fled, murmuring something 
 about having kept Penelope waiting too long. 
 
 He laughed impatiently as he gathered up 
 the reins. 
 
 " You are laughing at some stupidity of your 
 own," Penelope divined. "You did not tell 
 Laura we had gone for Mrs. Kendall?" 
 
 "That is exactly what I did," he acknowl- 
 edged, with conspicuous cheerfulness. " I am 
 confident I do not know a man who would 
 refuse an invitation simply because it had first 
 been tendered to another." 
 
 " Surely you do not expect a woman to be 
 gifted with the same degree of logic as a man," 
 she protested. " I wonder where Loys could 
 have gone. It is not her afternoon to read to 
 her old gentleman at the Old Peoples' Home, 
 nor to go to the hospital " 
 
 " To hear you, one would think Mrs. Kendall 
 spent her life in ministering to the halt," re- 
 monstrated Yorke. 
 
 "Was I making her out a tiresome saint ?" 
 she laughed. " Well, let me modify my state- 
 ment by saying that the old man to whom Loys
 
 126 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 reads is a blind English journalist, from whom 
 she says she learns more than from any one else ; 
 and she has an insatiate appetite for knowledge. 
 No, Loys is not fatiguingly good." 
 
 " You and Mrs. Kendall really make a man 
 believe that friendship is possible between 
 women," commented Van Arsdale. " I have 
 laid the most plausible pitfalls for you, yet I 
 have never succeeded in insnaring the one 
 into speaking evil of the other. By the way, 
 Penelope, how is your pupil getting along?" 
 
 Penelope flushed painfully, as though detected 
 in some wrong-doing. 
 
 " I used to think you made a confidant of 
 me," he pursued. " I am hurt that you no 
 longer let me behind the scenes." 
 
 "There is nothing much to tell," she con- 
 trived to murmur. " She cannot afford lessons, 
 and it would be impossible to offer to pay for 
 them, so Loys proposed that I become her 
 teacher; and as Loys rarely asks anything of 
 me, I assented. You see, I really deserve no 
 credit." 
 
 Van Arsdale let his gloved hand fall upon 
 hers for an instant. " No," he conceded, softly ; 
 "no, you deserve no credit at all." 
 
 Penelope thought she had never seen the
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 127 
 
 Park in better mood. It is always clothed in 
 impeccable freshness ; but that day, to Penelope, 
 the ever-changing greens of its dense leafage, 
 the well-kept grass, and the velvet-coated flow- 
 ers nodding gently in the just stirring breeze, 
 seemed something she had never seen before. 
 
 The driveway was gay with carriages, although 
 a thoroughly well-appointed equipage was the 
 exception, not the rule. 
 
 "Isn't that Loys with the Underhill chil- 
 dren?" cried Penelope, pointing down a side 
 path. 
 
 "Why can't you take the horses, Van Ars- 
 dale," asked Yorke, " while I go back to find 
 Mrs. Kendall and persuade her to come with 
 us?" 
 
 A few yards farther on, Van Arsdale took 
 the reins, and Yorke turned his steps toward 
 the children's playgrounds, where Penelope 
 thought Loys had probably gone. 
 
 When he reached the grounds, he could 
 descry Loys marshalling her young friends to 
 the merry-go-round. The two older children 
 elected to sail in the boats. Loys took up her 
 stand next to the youngest child, who was 
 astride a horse. Her back was turned to Yorke, 
 but he could see that she was trying to induce
 
 128 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 the little girl to cease her sobs. The child 
 would not be quieted, but obdurately continued 
 to point to the charger beside her o\vn. 
 
 Loys's lips were slightly compressed as she 
 mounted her horse, but one rebellious dimple 
 showed she was alive to the ridiculousness of 
 the situation. 
 
 The merry-go-round was now in motion ; the 
 boats careened gayly, the animals tossed their 
 heads bravely to the rhythm of the weird 
 noises evolved from the internal organs of the 
 machine. As the circle was described, Yorke 
 saw that Loys was upon the most spirited steed 
 of the cavalcade. Perhaps the music inspired 
 him with ardor, perhaps his fair burden. He 
 seemed almost to rise on his painted hind legs 
 as he curveted along, and Yorke, who had 
 grown slightly confused by his unrestrained 
 laughter, and the courtesying of the ungainly 
 monster, imagined he could perceive the wicked 
 gleam of his eye. Loys kept her seat, not 
 through her superior horsemanship, but because 
 she had wound her arms tightly round the neck 
 of the animal. 
 
 Yorke leaned against a convenient post, in a 
 very ecstasy of mirth. People looked at him 
 pityingly, but he was blissfully unconscious of
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 129 
 
 his own' antics. Again Loys swept into view ; 
 but at sight of her face Yorke stilled his 
 laughter. She was absolutely colorless, and her 
 eyes were closed. The rotary movement sud- 
 denly ceased, and the children clambered 
 down from their perches; Loys dismounted 
 with majestic composure. When Yorke saw 
 her quivering lips he took her arm. 
 
 " How cruel you were to watch me," she 
 cried, a tremulous little break in her voice. 
 " You never took your eyes off me." 
 
 " But there was only one ring to attract my 
 attention," he protested, in innocent surprise, 
 "only one peerless equestrienne." 
 
 She laughed as she dropped his arm, say- 
 ing, "The world has stopped going round 
 to me." 
 
 They retraced their steps to the music-stand, 
 where they found Penelope and Van Arsdale 
 awaiting them. 
 
 Loys did not wish to drive, as she saw that 
 the cart would not accommodate them all, but 
 her objections were overruled. Yorke installed 
 the little girl upon his knee. She was a beauti- 
 ful child, three or four years of age, whose 
 charming manners endeared her to every one. 
 
 Yorke asked her her name. 
 9
 
 130 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 " Loys tails me Baby Blue Eyes, 'tause my 
 eyes is blue, but my wight name is Elizabeth 
 Gwant Underhill. I know what Elizabeth be- 
 gins with. It begins with a E." She looked up 
 to note the effect of her astounding knowledge. 
 
 "So it does," replied Yorke. " I wonder if 
 you know the letter with which my name 
 begins, Yorke." 
 
 After, a moment's consideration, she shook 
 her head. " But I know Stephen's letter, 
 it's S, and Fweddie's letter is F. They are 
 on our stockings. Do you want to see?" 
 
 Without more ado, she brought .up one 
 ridiculously small foot from underneath the robe, 
 and displayed a neat little German " E " in 
 red, which was sewed to the inside of her 
 stocking. 
 
 "Will you tell me your letter now?" she 
 went on. 
 
 It is Y." 
 
 " Y, Y," she repeated to herself. Then she 
 added, " That 's the most cuwiosest letter, is n't 
 it? It always asks so many questions." 
 
 " I wonder if your hand can do what mine 
 can," mused Yorke. "Now, you see, it is 
 closed, but if you blow on it three times I think 
 it may open."
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 131 
 
 She puffed out her little cheeks, and blew 
 and blew and blew, until she was as red as the 
 rose Loys had tucked in her belt, and Yorke's 
 hand opened. 
 
 " I can do that too," volunteered Freddie. 
 
 " Let 's see," urged his incredulous sister, 
 resuming her hard work, this time over Freddie's 
 hand, and, much to her astonishment, with the 
 same result. 
 
 " Close your hand now," prompted Yorke, 
 "and let us see if it will not open when I 
 blow on it for the third time." But with all 
 his blowing, the little maid's hand remained 
 clenched. 
 
 " P'w'aps if you blowed four times," she 
 herself suggested. Yorke again blew in vain, 
 and the little boys laughed at their sister's 
 density; but she was not at all dismayed. 
 
 " I dess it 's dust my will, that my marmee 
 says '11 have to be bwoke. When she wants me 
 to go to bed, some times my will don't want to 
 go, but I do, 'tause my popsy don't love me 
 when I don't mind. Me and my will has awful 
 times." 
 
 She prattled on and on, talking of the ocean 
 and the horses and the people, until she tired 
 herself out.
 
 132 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 " My eyes dust won't stay open," she con- 
 fided. " I fink I '11 have to button them tight. 
 May I go to sleep with Loys? " 
 
 "May I kiss her?" Yorke asked of Loys, 
 who nodded assent. 
 
 "Do you want to be tissed like Loys? It's 
 hard; it might hurt you," the child warned. 
 
 York preserved an undaunted front, and she 
 clasped her arms round his neck and pressed 
 her dewy lips to his. 
 
 " When I tiss Loys like that, she wishes she 
 had a little dirl dust like me, and me and my 
 marmee pways " 
 
 Yorke silenced the child by a kiss, and laid 
 her in Loys's arms, where she soon fell asleep. 
 
 Penelope now entered into the conversation, 
 and they were all so merry that Loys's silence 
 was not especially marked. 
 
 " The children are to stay with me for a few 
 days, as their mother must have absolute quiet," 
 explained Loys, as she alighted at her own door, 
 and Penelope and Van Arsdale drove away. 
 "They are going to have their dinner at once. 
 Will you come in ? " 
 
 It was then only five, and Yorke entered 
 with them. The nurse took the children away 
 to wash them, but soon the three hungry little
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 133 
 
 people were seated at the table, and at their 
 invitation Yorke also ate with them. They 
 never forgot that meal, nor did Yorke, though 
 he remembered it for another reason than 
 theirs. 
 
 When he had performed his last trick and 
 sung his last song, he went away. The children 
 followed him to the door, and watched him 
 until, at the corner of the street, he turned 
 once more to bow, then passed out of sight. 
 
 The sky was already stained with the orange 
 shadows. 
 
 A few moments later, Kendall reached home, 
 and as Loys met him in the hall, he said, " I 
 wonder what is the matter with Yorke. I passed 
 him just now, but he did not see me. He 
 looked like a thunder-cloud." 
 
 Then they joined the children, and Kendall 
 romped with them until the nurse bore them 
 away to bed, and he and Loys sat down to 
 dinner.
 
 Chapter XL 
 
 ENDALL rose lazily from the depths of 
 the arm-chair in which he had been 
 ensconced. 
 
 " If I were not to sing, I should not have 
 the courage to venture out," he declared, listen- 
 ing to the monotonous patter of the rain against 
 the window-panes. " I don't believe I shall go, 
 anyway. The Jinks will get along without me," 
 he murmured, sinking back into his chair. 
 
 Loys smiled confidentially at the handker- 
 chief into which she was embroidering his 
 monogram. 
 
 "But will it not spoil the whole affair?" 
 queried Helen Sargent. 
 
 "Perhaps it would," acceded Kendall, as- 
 suming a tone of seriousness, " so I presume 
 it is my duty to go. Don't suppose you have 
 blinded me ; I see how anxious you and Loys 
 are to be alone. By George, I have n't a 
 cigar," he added.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 135 
 
 Loys laid down her work, saying, "I know 
 where I put the box." 
 
 "I'll get it myself," he remonstrated, try- 
 ing to restrain her from leaving the room. 
 Neither would return, and it ended by the two 
 of them running upstairs for the cigars. 
 
 " You might just as well have let me go 
 alone," panted Kendall, as they returned, and 
 he struggled into his top-coat. 
 
 " So might you," she reminded. " Some- 
 times, I almost believe that you missed your 
 vocation. From the amount of stubbornness 
 you possess, you must, originally, have been 
 intended for a mule." 
 
 " Pray, why could n't you give in? " 
 
 " Simply because I wish you to learn that 
 you cannot always have your own way, sir. 
 Then, again," she confided, " I like to make 
 home pleasant for you before sending you off 
 to Bohemia. I realize full well the danger I 
 am fronting in sending you from me; but at 
 the club there will be no one to divine your 
 wants, as I do." 
 
 She stood leaning lightly against him, regard- 
 ing him with gravely demure eyes. 
 
 "What a little fraud you are ! " he protested, 
 lifting her face to his.
 
 136 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 Helen Sargent could not avoid overhearing 
 their conversation, which was being carried on 
 in the hall. Her breast stirred with dull pain ; 
 she wondered if she, too, would ever be as 
 happy as Loys. 
 
 "Now we shall be quite cosey," Loys de- 
 clared, after seeing Kendall to the door. 
 "What has been fretting you, dear?" 
 
 " I am tired of it all," Helen broke out, her 
 handsome face kindling with a sense of her 
 wrongs, " so tired of the monotony of it all, 
 that I am almost tempted to say I will marry 
 Mr. Hawkes." 
 
 With an effort, Loys restrained a movement 
 of apprehension. 
 
 " It is the rain," she said, " and the over- 
 work which has brought you to this frame of 
 mind. To-morrow you will not be in this 
 mood." 
 
 "Perhaps not," allowed the girl, "but this 
 mood is getting to be my normal one. I know 
 the rain has something to do with it." 
 
 " Of course it has," agreed Loys. " You 
 left home early this morning and walked three 
 or four blocks to get your car, holding up 
 your skirts in one hand and your umbrella in 
 the other. Petticoats are an awful nuisance in
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 137 
 
 the rain; you cannot keep them spotless, no 
 matter how careful you are, and that is enough 
 to spoil one's day." 
 
 "Then it cleared at one, and when I left 
 school at half-past three, I met throngs of well- 
 dressed women, and I was morbidly conscious 
 of my rainy-weather gown. The children acted 
 like little demons, as they usually do after being 
 kept indoors at the recesses, and I had not a 
 second to myself. Coming home in the car, 
 after giving my private lesson, I met Mrs. 
 Woods, who leaned across to ask me, in a tone 
 which could be heard from one end of the 
 car to the other, if I always worked so late. 
 What is the good of going round publishing the 
 fact that I work? I am not ashamed of it; 
 in fact, I am rather proud of earning over a 
 hundred dollars a month, for it proves I can- 
 not be entirely without brains ; but there is no 
 sense in advertising my bondage." 
 
 Loys's face was alive with sympathy. Helen 
 Sargent had a peculiar interest for her; she 
 saw in the girl her self of two or three years 
 ago. 
 
 " It is all very well to speak of this demo- 
 cratic America of ours," the girl hurried on, 
 " but there is no such thing as democracy. I
 
 138 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 am tired of being patronized. I can remember 
 the time when we still had money, and the 
 difference between our treatment then and now 
 rankles. I confess I am weary of the constant 
 struggle to make both ends meet." 
 
 " If you could only do that, you could make 
 your fortune in some circus," Loys reminded, 
 seeing the tension must be loosened. 
 
 Helen's face brightened for an instant. 
 
 " And Mr. Hawkes is the only escape I see," 
 she resumed. " If I had the time to practise 
 properly, I might be able to bear it all ; but I 
 am exhausted at night, and my voice will not 
 obey the demands I put upon it. So I have 
 decided to marry Mr. Hawkes, and patronize 
 instead of being patronized, and ride in my 
 carriage, and " 
 
 " And be miserable ever afterward," supplied 
 Loys, firmly. " Have you no idea of what mar- 
 riage is that you calmly propose to link yourself 
 for life to such a man as Mr. Hawkes?" 
 
 " I should have the time and the money to 
 cultivate my gift," the girl reiterated, tenaciously. 
 
 " But what would your success mean if you 
 were his wife?" demanded Loys, breathlessly. 
 " It would be only dead sea fruit. Your whole 
 soul is in your art ; but you are a woman, too,
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 139 
 
 and you must not blind yourself to the fact that 
 afterward, when success was yours, you would 
 hunger for some one who could share it with 
 you. Is Mr. Hawkes such a one? " 
 
 " He is not such a man as you could marry, 
 but I do not dislike him ; and how often does a 
 girl marry the man she loves? She usually 
 marries the man who asks her, and ends by 
 loving him." 
 
 "Does she?" deliberated Loys. "I am 
 going to tell you the experience of a girl I once 
 knew. Her case was not unlike yours, but she 
 married the man who loved her, while you 
 do you hear me ? you are going to marry the 
 man you love and who loves you." 
 
 "Where is your divining-rod?" scoffed 
 Helen. 
 
 " The marriage is not to take place for many 
 years yet," pursued Loys. " First, you are to 
 study in Europe, and sing before all the crowned 
 heads there, and be applauded to the echo. 
 Who ever made a name for himself in San 
 Francisco? In our humility we are afraid to 
 trust our own opinions, or to pronounce well 
 done what has not been declared so in Europe 
 or New York. Now, are you going to marry 
 Mr. Hawkes, with whom you have not one taste
 
 140 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 in common, or are you going to make Penelope 
 happy by accepting her offer? " 
 
 " Suppose," breathed the girl, yielding, " Sup- 
 pose, after all, that you are mistaken, that my 
 voice will never be anything much, or that it 
 may fail me altogether? " 
 
 " I do not believe we are mistaken," main- 
 tained Loys ; " and if your voice should fail 
 you " She drew a deep breath and kissed 
 Helen's tear-dimmed face. 
 
 " What was the experience of this girl you 
 knew years ago? " asked Helen, dreamily. 
 
 Loys shuddered. "She " She paused 
 as the maid admitted Penelope, Van Arsdale, 
 and Yorke. 
 
 " I wish she had known you," said Helen, 
 quickly. " You would have made her life so 
 different for her." 
 
 Loys smiled enigmatically. 
 
 For some time Helen sat listening to the 
 talk circling about her, yet comprehending little 
 but that they were speaking of music. Sud- 
 denly she bent toward Yorke, saying : 
 
 " Will you listen to me sing, and tell me what 
 you think can be made of my voice ? I am 
 asking a great deal, but I should appreciate 
 your opinion. I have read many of your arti-
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 141 
 
 cles on music, and I realize what your opinion 
 would be worth. Miss Browning has offered to 
 send me to Paris, but if there are not great 
 possibilities in my voice, I should prefer not to 
 go. I can bear the truth now better than 
 later." 
 
 " Would it not be well to wait until another 
 time?" Yorke suggested. "You are over- 
 excited. Let me come to you to-morrow." 
 
 " I shall do my best now." 
 
 Penelope rose to accompany her, vividly con- 
 scious of Van Arsdale's eyes upon her. She 
 wondered who it was who said the greatest 
 pleasure is to do good by stealth and have it 
 found out by accident. 
 
 " Do not attempt anything too ambitious to- 
 night," cautioned Yorke. " Will you try this? " 
 
 Loys was trembling with excitement before 
 the girl began to sing Schumann's " Ich Grolle 
 Nicht," then a great calm stole over her. 
 Helen was right, she was doing her best. 
 
 When the song came to an end, and Yorke 
 called for different fragments from numerous 
 operas, to gauge the compass of her voice, his 
 eyes mutely encouraged Helen. 
 
 " You can make what you will of your voice," 
 he declared, at length. " I know something
 
 142 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 of the drudgery and the disappointments and 
 the small chance of success, yet I advise you to 
 go, for I believe you will triumph. You are 
 extraordinarily gifted. You are young and 
 strong, and your personality will help you," he 
 affirmed, as matter-of-factedly as though he 
 were discussing a statue. 
 
 " There is a radical fault with your breath- 
 ing," he went on. "You must lay aside all 
 your tight swathings when practising." 
 
 He promised her letters to people whose 
 very name inspired her with awe. 
 
 " Let us have tea now," urged Penelope. 
 "My nerves require strengthening." 
 
 " We shall have to make toast, for this bread 
 is not quite fresh," said Loys, returning from 
 the kitchen. 
 
 Penelope made the tea, while Yorke and 
 Loys, armed with toasting-forks, held the bread 
 over the bed of red coals. Suddenly the bell 
 tingled, and Loys, stealing a hasty glance about 
 the room, exclaimed, " Who can it be ? Will 
 you go to the door, Mr. Van Arsdale ? Jane is 
 out, and I am afraid our new cook has retired." 
 
 A moment later, Dr. Haswell stood in the 
 room. 
 
 "What is going on?" he cried. "A picnic?
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 143 
 
 I stopped before the door a while ago to listen 
 to Miss Helen, and promised myself I should 
 come in later before going to the club. There 
 is going to be toast, and there is nothing I like 
 as much as hot toast," he went on, usurping 
 Loys's place. " How is it you are having tea so 
 early? " 
 
 " I suppose because we do not arrange every- 
 thing by the clock here as do the Bigelows," 
 Loys answered. " Mrs. Bigelow once told me 
 that Mr. Bigelow put his right foot into bed 
 every night at half-past ten, and I inquired, 
 thirsting for information, 'And at what time 
 does he put in his left foot ? ' Since then, Mrs. 
 Bigelow bows very frigidly." 
 
 It was a very merry little feast, and at its end 
 Yorke insisted upon gathering the dishes to- 
 gether and carrying them to the kitchen. Then 
 glasses were brought, and Helen's success was 
 drunk in champagne. 
 
 " You will live successfully through all the 
 hard work, Miss Helen," prophesied Dr. Has- 
 well. " You are the fittest ; you will survive. 
 What do you mean," he continued, glowering 
 at Loys, " by writing such a morbid story as 
 that of yours in ' The Cycle ' ? There are to be 
 no more of that kind. You are to make my
 
 144 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 patients laugh ; do you hear ? and you are to 
 laugh yourself while writing them. It would 
 have been a better story though it might 
 have been sinning against all the canons of art 
 if you had brought it to a happy conclusion." 
 
 " It is more a study in heredity than a story, 
 and it could not possibly have ended happily," 
 Loys protested. " Because of the fixed laws of 
 nature which decree that a child must suffer 
 for the father's sins, and because of her environ- 
 ment, she could not escape the end. The story 
 is not a bright one, but to me it concludes well. 
 With her death the chain was broken, the 
 misery was not to be perpetuated farther." 
 
 " It must be time for you to go to the club," 
 interrupted Penelope, hurriedly. 
 
 " Don't you wish you were going to the Low 
 Jinks, too? " ventured Dr. Haswell. 
 
 " Indeed, we don't," retorted Penelope. "We 
 understand they are to be very low." 
 
 " ' A paradox I know it seems, but 't is a truth sublime, 
 That a man may get down very low, yet have a high 
 old time.' " 
 
 quoted Yorke. 
 
 " Loys, did I say only this evening that life 
 was not worth living?" whispered Helen Sar-
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 145 
 
 gent, on leaving. " Oh, Loys, no wonder you 
 are so happy when you make so many others 
 happy ! I am intoxicated ; I do not know 
 whether it is the champagne or happiness." 
 
 Loys was tired when she finally reached her 
 own chamber. She loosened her hair and 
 slipped into a tea-gown, then, taking a candle, 
 passed through Kendall's dressing-room to the 
 apartment which opened off it. 
 
 It was a dainty room, all in white bird's-eye 
 maple, which had originally been fitted up as a 
 nursery. Loys stood at the head of the little 
 crib, looking down at the unpressed pillow. 
 
 " Why can I not be as happy as Helen thinks 
 me?" she reflected. "If the little one had 
 lived, it would all have been so different. 
 Perhaps now she would have been stirring, and 
 I should have held her in my arms and soothed 
 her to sleep again. What pain a little child's 
 fingers could keep out of one's heart ! I almost 
 wish Dr. Haswell had not told me, though 
 possibly it is better I should know the 
 inevitable." 
 
 She leaned over the cradle as if about to kiss 
 the little face which should have rested there, 
 then caught up the candle swiftly, and retreated 
 to Kendall's dressing-room. 
 10
 
 146 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 " I must give the cradle to some one," she 
 breathed, with difficulty, pressing her hand to 
 her heart. " It is wrong to encourage myself in 
 this pain." 
 
 "Why cannot every one be like Penelope and 
 Mr. Yorke? His letters will make matters so 
 much easier for Nell, and his manner of offering 
 them was so delicate," her thoughts went on, 
 as she mechanically slipped Kendall's links into 
 his cuffs. "He has such great, strong ways, 
 any woman might I am tired," she broke 
 off, aloud. " I shall go to bed." But she 
 made no move. 
 
 "I am glad Riker Van Arsdale heard of 
 Pen's generosity," she continued, smiling remi- 
 niscently. " If I only dared to tell him but 
 I don't. I believe, too, it will all end happily 
 without my interference. Was it Balzac who 
 said, 'Love is a game at which one always 
 cheats ' ? " 
 
 She took up the magazine in which appeared 
 the story Dr. Haswell had so ruthlessly attacked, 
 and tried to read it impartially. 
 
 " Despite what he said, I agree with the 
 critics : it is the best short story I have yet 
 written," she argued. " It is strange, but when 
 Dr. Haswell was speaking, not one of them
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 147 
 
 came to my assistance ; they all preserved a 
 chilling, disapproving silence. Mr. Yorke has 
 discussed my other work at such length, it seems 
 odd he should -not have mentioned this. No, 
 it is not a pleasing story ; but I do think the 
 workmanship good." 
 
 When she finally reached bed, she gave her- 
 self up to the delightful pastime of planning 
 Helen's future. It seemed but a short time 
 later that she heard a carriage stop before the 
 house, and then Kendall enter. At the thresh- 
 old he stumbled, and Loys heard him swear 
 softly at his own awkwardness. He turned on 
 the light, and, glancing over at the bed, per- 
 ceived she was awake. 
 
 " Did I waken you? " he asked, contritely. 
 
 Ordinarily, Kendall's voice was of remarkable 
 sweetness. That night it sounded muffled and 
 indistinct. He sat down on the edge of the 
 bed, and rested his head on his palm. Loys 
 drew away, her face distorted by a spasm of 
 pain. 
 
 " Yorke's paper was the success of the first 
 part of the evening," he announced, "and 
 Charlie Richmond's imitations were splendid. 
 Yorke and Van left early, and they 'sisted upon 
 seeing me to the carriage. I 'm 'shamed of my-
 
 148 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 self, 'shamed you should see me. I think I 
 drank too much," he confided, gravely. 
 
 Then he commenced to laugh foolishly as 
 the remembrance of some dubious bon mot of 
 one of the wits of the club flashed into his 
 confused thoughts. 
 
 "That was a good one of Whiting's," he ram- 
 bled on. "I'll tell it to you. It's rather " 
 
 "I do not wish to hear it," she insisted, 
 sharply. "I think you had better go to bed." 
 
 " P'rapsh I had," he agreed, looking at her 
 with owl-like solemnity. " I say, Loys, you 're 
 looking handsome No need to be so angry, 
 m' dear." 
 
 Loys lay motionless and sleepless. She had 
 never before seen Kendall under the influence 
 of wine, and it filled her with disgust. She 
 wondered what Van Arsdale and Yorke thought 
 when they put him in the coupe 1 . Being a woman, 
 she could not be expected to know how differ- 
 ently a man regards an occurrence of the kind, 
 and that Gregory's head was much steadier than 
 those of many of his fellow club members at 
 the same moment. 
 
 She thought she had been asleep for only 
 five or ten minutes when she was awakened by 
 her own cry. She was gasping for breath.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 149 
 
 The room was hot to suffocation and filled with 
 smoke. 
 
 She shook Kendall by the arm, calling him 
 loudly. He was awake on the instant, and 
 conscious. 
 
 " If only the stairs are not on fire," he cried, 
 springing up. He hurriedly got into some of 
 his clothes, and went round to assist Loys. 
 
 Afterward she remembered that he was calm 
 and self-possessed. The halls were full of 
 smoke, but no flames were visible, and they 
 made their way to the street. The lower floor 
 of the adjoining house was in flames, but its 
 inmates had escaped. It was clear that the fire 
 had not yet communicated itself to the Kendall's 
 house. 
 
 As the cool night air struck Loys, her excite- 
 ment lessened. She clutched Kendall's arm, 
 crying, "We forgot the servants." She looked 
 at him eagerly, as a child looks to one much 
 older and wiser than himself, for help. 
 
 " The firemen will soon be here. There will 
 be time enough then." 
 
 "They must be saved now, now," she 
 persisted. 
 
 She gazed at him in stupid incredulity as his 
 grasp upon her arm tightened, then broke away,
 
 150 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 and ran up the steps. The cries of the people 
 in the street reached her, but she closed the 
 house door behind her and fled through the 
 lower hall. She paused before the cook's room, 
 which adjoined the kitchen. The woman had 
 already been roused by the noise, and opened 
 the door to Loys's rapping. 
 
 "I am going to call Jane," Loys said, making 
 her way up the rear staircase, through the 
 blinding smoke. 
 
 The woman called to her, but what, Loys did 
 not hear. The flames had now broken into the 
 lower hall, and she was intent upon reaching 
 Jane. 
 
 She beat the door of the room with her 
 slender hands, and called and called, but there 
 was no response. She turned the door-knob 
 noisily to and fro, until it seemed impossible 
 that the maid could still be asleep. Suddenly 
 the door opened, Loys had opened it herself, 
 and she stood within the now brilliantly lit 
 room only to see that the maid's bed had not 
 been occupied. Then she remerfibered that 
 she had given Jane permission to remain with 
 her mother that night. 
 
 She sank down on a chair, pressing her hand 
 to her madly beating heart. She knew she
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. !! 
 
 ought not to rest, but was powerless to move. 
 It seemed very quiet and restful in the little 
 room, and the street was all alive with noise. 
 She was dimly conscious of the fact that her 
 arm was paining her, and she looked down at it. 
 Above the elbow the sleeve had been burned 
 away. She recollected that as she had made 
 her way through the hall, a little flame had shot 
 through the wall and leaped at her, but she had 
 had the presence of mind to beat the fire out 
 with the shawl she yet held in her hand. 
 
 She continued to sit motionless, listlessly 
 wondering where Gregory was and what he was 
 doing, and why she had looked to him to 
 arouse the servants. Why should she not have 
 thought at once of doing the work herself? Was 
 his life less precious or sweet than hers? 
 
 What would the firemen think of those dishes 
 Bishop Yorke had piled up on the table ? What 
 a gay little supper they were having now that 
 Helen had scored such a success ! She frowned 
 at Gregory's loud laughter as he raised his glass 
 to drink to the girl. But suddenly they all 
 grew very still as Helen rose to sing. 
 
 It was very strange, but, somehow, she was 
 singing the song of the girl next door, and some 
 one was beating time to it with an axe and
 
 Chapter XII. 
 
 JR. Haswell and Bishop Yorke went home 
 together from the festivities at the Bo- 
 hemian Club. Their route took them in the 
 direction of the Kendall's house, and their pro- 
 gress was impeded by the fire apparatus. 
 
 The two men stepped from the carriage, and 
 saw that the Kendall's home was in flames. 
 There were murmurs in the crowd about them 
 that a woman was in one of the burning houses, 
 and as they pressed anxiously forward, they saw 
 Loys carried out. 
 
 In an instant Dr. Haswell assumed com- 
 mand, and, placing Loys in the carriage, directed 
 the driver to Penelope Browning's. 
 
 The household had already been aroused by 
 the fire. A few moments later Loys was in 
 bed, but it was some time before Dr. Haswell 
 succeeded in restoring her to consciousness. 
 
 At last she lay back upon the pillows, look- 
 ing about her, then suddenly she started up, 
 crying, deliriously, " He did try to save them,
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 153 
 
 but I pushed him back. Do you hear, he did 
 try. No one is to think Gregory a coward." 
 
 In the short drive to Penelope's, Kendall 
 had given an unvarnished recital of what had 
 taken place. He had not tried to shield him- 
 self, freely confessing that in his excitement he 
 had been unable to think of any one but them- 
 selves ; but now, as Loys's words sounded in his 
 ears, he cowered away from her. 
 
 " Loys, I did not save them," he began. 
 
 The physician looked up at him pityingly, 
 then said, " Hush ! She is to have her own 
 way about it. Send Yorke to me. I shall need 
 assistance in bandaging Mrs. Kendall's arm, 
 and I know Yorke can render it more ably 
 than you in your present state." 
 
 Kendall found Yorke in an adjoining room 
 with Penelope and Mrs. Luttrell. 
 
 " Haswell wants you to help him bandage 
 Loys's arm. Don't refuse, man," he exclaimed, 
 as Yorke retreated. "She will not even know 
 you are there, for she is delirious. Come." 
 
 Still Yorke made no movement. The two 
 women looked at him in astonishment. It was 
 a moment at which the conventionalities might 
 well be laid aside. 
 
 "Go," Mrs. Luttrell directed. "You can 
 probably aid him better than we can."
 
 154 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 Nothing remained for Yorke but to obey. 
 Like a man in a dream he followed Kendall 
 into the room. 
 
 Kendall made a hasty step forward, crying, 
 " She has fainted again." 
 
 The physician looked up from his work an- 
 grily. " I want quiet, do you understand ? 
 absolute quiet. I can rely upon you, Yorke. 
 Hand me the articles as I require them." 
 
 In the meantime, he was again bringing Loys 
 back to consciousness. 
 
 The right sleeve had been cut from the 
 night-robe, and the upper portion of the arm 
 was swathed in linen ; but from the elbow down 
 the flesh showed, white and unmarred, against 
 the delicate blue of the silken coverlet. 
 
 Yorke had not understood his own reluctance 
 to obey Kendall's request, but in the unbroken 
 quiet of the sick-room he awakened to a per- 
 ception of the truth. He was face to face with 
 the fact that he was in love with Gregory 
 Kendall's wife. He felt he had no right to be 
 there, yet he could not retreat. 
 
 At Dr. Haswell's motion, Yorke drew back 
 into the shadow of the draped bed, as Loys, 
 with a long-drawn sigh, opened her eyes. 
 
 "I am going to bandage your arm now," said
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 155 
 
 the physician, leaning over her, " and then you 
 are going to sleep." 
 
 "Yes, but first Gregory must go from the 
 room," she said, holding out her hand to her 
 husband. " Go to bed now, so that you may 
 be able to take care of me to-morrow. I do 
 not wish you to see how ugly my arm looks, 
 you are to think of it as it was." 
 
 " You had better go before I put you out 
 bodily," threatened the physician, moving from 
 the bed for a preparation of cocaine. 
 
 Kendall bent over Loys, whispering, " Do 
 you forgive me for my cowardice? Do you 
 love me still? " 
 
 She tried to sit up among the pillows. " You 
 were not cowardly; you were about to enter 
 the house when I pushed you away," she in- 
 sisted excitedly. " Don't you think I can 
 remember what occurred as well as you ? " 
 She slipped her left arm about his neck, and 
 pressed his face to hers. " Good-night, dear," 
 she added. 
 
 Kendall turned away, not ashamed of the 
 tears -in his eyes. 
 
 "And now," said Dr. Haswell, moving to the 
 bed, " Now, we shall take care of the arm." 
 
 " Close the doors, please. I do not wish
 
 156 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 them to hear me, and I am afraid I shall cry : 
 it is paining me so much now." 
 
 " Yes, I know ; but it will pain less in a few 
 moments. Be sure to help me by your bravery. 
 It will soon be over." 
 
 His skilful fingers were already on the ban- 
 dage. Loys closed her eyes and clenched her 
 teeth, to repress a moan. Without clearly real- 
 izing what he was doing, Yorke leaned over 
 and looked at the scarred flesh. He drew 
 back, white to the lips, trembling in every 
 nerve. He handed the physician the different 
 articles as they were required, but he had no 
 knowledge of his movements. 
 
 " Hurry," Loys breathed once. It seemed 
 to Yorke that the physician was exulting in the 
 time he was taking. 
 
 At last the task was completed, and Loys lay 
 back, white and exhausted, trying to smile. 
 
 "Don't laugh at me," she implored. "I 
 know I cannot bear physical pain. But once I 
 moaned so loud I heard it myself; it seemed 
 as if it must be some one's else moan, it was 
 so distinct." 
 
 " I did not hear you," affirmed Dr. Haswell. 
 " There, close your eyes, and sleep will soon come 
 to you. I am going to stay with you a while."
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 157 
 
 " You are not to remain all night, as you did 
 last September, even after you had promised to 
 go home," she remonstrated, wearily, closing 
 her eyes. 
 
 Dr. Haswell smiled up at Yorke, but received 
 no answering smile. Without one backward 
 glance, Yorke passed from the room. 
 
 "Was there much pain?" demanded Ken- 
 dall, who stood without the door. 
 
 Yorke nodded assent. " Her arm It is 
 awful to witness a woman's pain and feel your- 
 self helpless to lessen it. If she had moaned, 
 I could have stood it, but she was so brave " 
 His voice broke. 
 
 Neither Penelope nor Mrs. Luttrell knew of 
 any good he could do by remaining in the 
 house, as Dr. Haswell had signified his inten- 
 tion to stay with Loys all night. 
 
 Yorke shuddered as the night air struck him. 
 
 He walked on and on, heedless of the direc- 
 tion of his steps. Twice he found himself 
 before Penelope's door. The faint glimmer of 
 light in the upper room attracted him irresist- 
 ibly. He seemed impotent to resist its puis- 
 sant spell. 
 
 Bishop Yorke had never pretended to be a 
 whit better than his fellows. He had run the
 
 158 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 gamut of pleasure, but he had never dwelt on 
 any particular note. At that moment of intro- 
 spection, he was glad to find he need be 
 ashamed to look no man or woman in the face, 
 he must take heed that he could make the 
 same boast in the future. 
 
 He had once declared that to love was a 
 waste of time, and he had lived too full a life to 
 waste time. When he had planned his future, 
 there had always been a woman in it, his 
 ideal woman ; he was not yet so old as to have 
 parted with his ideals. Although he had scoffed 
 at love, he had believed in it so firmly as to 
 think it should be the foundation of marriage. 
 Now he suddenly realized that he must have 
 been egotistical, for he had never considered 
 the possibility of his falling in love with a 
 woman who would not love him. As usual, it 
 was the unexpected that had happened. 
 
 He had drifted into love unconsciously, but 
 he must no longer continue to drift. He 
 would pluck out this love frorrf*his heart. It 
 would soon die when it had nothing to feed 
 upon ; and he would give it nothing, he resolved.
 
 Chapter XIII. 
 
 |PON investigation, Kendall found that it 
 would take some time to repair the 
 house, although the upper portion had not been 
 seriously damaged. It was discovered that the 
 building itself had suffered far more than the 
 contents. 
 
 It happened that a small furnished house 
 next to Penelope Browning's was vacant at that 
 time, and Kendall rented it until such time as 
 the carpenters could complete his own. 
 
 Penelope and Mrs. Luttrell were inclined to 
 quarrel with him on this account, for they 
 would have liked to keep Loys with them ; but 
 she agreed with Gregory in saying it was bet- 
 ter for them to be in a home of their own, 
 adding, 
 
 " You will be with me whenever you like, for 
 we shall be quartered almost on your lawn." 
 
 " Now, Penelope Browning, prepare to give 
 a full account of yourself," commanded Loys 
 one morning as Penelope made her entrance.
 
 l6o A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 " Why did you not come over last evening ? 
 To what wilder festivity didst thou go? " 
 
 "I was punished for not coming. Francis 
 Grant called, and you know how dishearteningly 
 good he is." 
 
 "How can he help it, poor thing?" de- 
 manded Loys. " You know it takes two to be 
 bad." 
 
 "He is pathetically homely, is he not?" 
 acceded Penelope, with unkind readiness. " It 
 is a sin for any woman to be as ugly as his 
 mother." 
 
 " Is n't she very peculiar? " 
 
 " It is worse than that. Why, why, she even 
 likes to speak well of her friends, and so does 
 he ; so you can imagine what an hilarious 
 evening we had. That is always the way ; when 
 I try to punish some one else, I succeed in 
 punishing only myself." 
 
 " What had we done that we were to be 
 punished?" urged Loys. "We had one of 
 our old-time evenings, what Gregory calls one 
 of my country 'variety performances,' where 
 each artist is expected to contribute a song or 
 a dance." 
 
 " I did not come for fear Riker Van Arsdale 
 would think I came simply to see him. He
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. l6l 
 
 has not been near me for two weeks, and he 
 must have remembered that he half promised 
 to drive with us last Saturday ; but I saw him 
 with Laura and Mrs. Yorke. Was Bishop here ? " 
 
 " No ; I have not seen him since the day he 
 came to inquire about my arm, though he has 
 sent me several boxes of flowers." 
 
 Penelope absent-mindedly covered and un- 
 covered a cloisonne box which lay on the table 
 beside her. 
 
 " Loys," she commenced, " do you know 
 any of Riker's likes or dislikes from anything 
 he has ever said? " 
 
 Loys pondered a moment before answering. 
 
 " No, I cannot say that I do know his tastes 
 at all except in art. He eats whatever is put 
 before him ; but unless his attention were called 
 to it, I do not believe he would know whether 
 he were eating fish or fowl. He comes here, 
 but probably that is because we ask him to 
 come, and it is as easy perhaps easier to 
 say ' Yes ' than ' No.' I never heard him 
 vilify any one, but neither does he go out of his 
 way to commend any one. Now that you 
 mention it, I do not think I ever heard him 
 indulge in a personality, except about you or 
 Mr. Yorke, or that I ever heard him speak un- 
 ii
 
 l62 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 less he were spoken to, though he does not seem 
 to be one of those alarmingly silent men. Per- 
 haps, when he was young, his parents instilled 
 into his mind that children should be seen and 
 not heard, and he has never been able to rid 
 himself of his early training." 
 
 " It was not that. Did n't I ever tell you his 
 story?" 
 
 "No. What about him?" demanded Loys, 
 with all a healthy man's or woman's love for 
 personal gossip. 
 
 " I know only the skeleton of the story. It 
 seems that when he was about thirty, he fell 
 in love with a woman, who, I suppose, would 
 be termed an adventuress. Of course, he 
 was not aware of this, for all was outwardly 
 correct. She was extremely cultured and ac- 
 complished, and all that, and he proposed. 
 But she had also foolishly fallen in love with 
 him, and instead of marrying him, as might 
 have been expected, she showed him the closed 
 chapter in her life, is not that beautifully 
 put ? I have to give my imagination free rein, 
 because I do not know what really occurred, 
 though I think I can surmise. In those days, 
 Riker was unrighteously proud of his spotless 
 name ; and as he had not then begun to wear a
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 163 
 
 mask, no doubt he showed her what a blow the 
 revelation was to him. But his love was stronger 
 than his pride, and he succeeded in overcom- 
 ing her scruples. It was agreed that they were 
 to be married at his aunt's home. You never 
 met Mrs. Pennell, did you? No, she has not 
 been here in the last five years. The majority 
 of people call her a ' crank,' but it would not be 
 a worse world if there were more like her. She 
 reads Shelley, you know, and thinks all virtue 
 negative, and where was I ? Oh, yes. Well, 
 Mrs. Pennell countenanced the marriage ; but a 
 week before the wedding day the woman quietly 
 killed herself. Love makes us do droll things, 
 does it not?" she ended, as she arose to ar- 
 range her veil before the mirror. 
 
 " And since then," she resumed, at length 
 facing Loys, " Riker might have posed for that 
 king in the old reader, do you remember that 
 king who has been handed down in history as 
 never smiling again? You look as if you could 
 not summon up a smile. Don't you know, 
 young woman, that it is the greatest foolish- 
 ness to allow the troubles of others to be any- 
 thing but a dream? " 
 
 "Some "one ought to save him from himself. 
 It is not natural that any one should still feel so
 
 164 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 keenly a blow which fell ten years ago. We all 
 humor him too much. Something ought to 
 be done," Loys announced, with pleasing 
 promptitude. 
 
 "Yes, but what?" queried Penelope, gather- 
 ing fortitude from the look of inspiration which 
 found birth in Loys's eyes. 
 
 "Well," commenced Loys, haltingly, "we 
 should not speak to him unless he spoke to us, 
 nor " 
 
 Penelope gave an ecstatic little cry. 
 
 " You are an angel," she proclaimed. " Riker 
 Van Arsdale shall be saved, and I shall save 
 him." Here Penelope arose with fine dramatic 
 effect, looking tall and slender, not unlike another 
 Joan of Arc. "If I only knew when he intended 
 to honor us ! " 
 
 "Did I not tell you? He intends to dine 
 with you to-night." 
 
 Penelope left Loys in peace the remainder 
 of that day. 
 
 Mrs. Luttrell refused to countenance the 
 project Penelope had formed, saying it would 
 terminate in the loss of Van Arsdale's friend- 
 ship ; nevertheless she remained firm, or stub- 
 born, and it so fell out that Van Arsdale and 
 Penelope dined alone.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 165 
 
 She made no allusion to his neglect ; in fact, 
 she said little or nothing. She was as icily cold 
 as the soup, which Van Arsdale ate without a 
 glance of surprise at its frigid temperature. 
 
 That evening she realized, as never before, 
 how much he had been humored. They did 
 not exchange five remarks during the course 
 of the dinner, and the terrifying silence drove 
 her, despite her resolution, into making three 
 of them herself. 
 
 He stolidly ate the abominably prepared 
 food with as much appetite as any meal of 
 which she had ever seen him partake. 
 
 They sat opposite each other in the drawing- 
 room in dreary silence. Penelope was filled 
 with a nervous inclination to laugh at the ridicu- 
 lous picture they presented. How idiotic they 
 did look, sitting there, without a word, exactly 
 as if they had been married some four or five 
 years ! 
 
 "There were quite a number of people at 
 the Kendall's last night," Van Arsdale finally 
 volunteered. 
 
 " Yes ; Loys told me." 
 
 Another pause ensued, during which Penelope 
 looked wistfully at the latest novel lying upon 
 the table, which she wished to discuss with him.
 
 l66 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 But she was not yet ready to capitulate. Her 
 courage was strengthened by the fact that Mrs. 
 Luttrell had prophesied defeat for her, and said 
 that she intended to listen at the door. 
 
 Van Arsdale at length took up one of the 
 magazines she had been reading before dinner, 
 which had been left open, face downward. 
 
 " Can you not find something more worthy 
 of your time?" he began. "The emanations 
 from this woman's pen have not even the merit 
 of originality. She has stolen a thought here, 
 an expression there, and coupled them to- 
 gether by foreign words, and this melange is 
 served up to catch the attention of the illiterate. 
 Surely you saw the poverty of thought, of true 
 art, beneath its ostentatious dress?" 
 
 She said nothing for a time, looking pensively 
 into the fire ; then, as if with a mighty effort, 
 she faltered, "You know, I wrote it." 
 
 He could frame no excuse for his scorching 
 criticism ; he felt it to be warranted, but, inad- 
 vertently, he had hurt her cruelly. He could 
 think of nothing to say, and silence reigned for 
 a little. 
 
 " I did not think it so poor. Do you think 
 it would appear so to every one? " she appealed, 
 raising her dewy eyes to his.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 167 
 
 "No, no," he protested. "You know I am 
 apt to be hypercritical, and I could not have 
 been in a responsive mood when I glanced 
 through it." 
 
 She held out her hand, with a heart-broken 
 little smile, which made him fancy Blue-Beard 
 a chivalrous gentleman compared with himself. 
 
 " You need not look so regretful. You have 
 not dealt me a death-blow." But she caught 
 her quivering lip in her teeth and turned away 
 from him. 
 
 " Do not take my words so much to heart," 
 he pleaded. " What do I know about an article 
 of that description ? I am sure it must be well 
 conceived and written, else it would not have 
 made its appearance in those columns. Pene- 
 lope, tell me I have not pained you." 
 
 She had never seen him so concerned, yet 
 she wished more fervently than ever that Mrs. 
 Luttrell had not kept to her threat. She turned 
 to him, her face working not with grief, but 
 with laughter. 
 
 " O Riker Van Arsdale, are you not a most 
 credulous being ! " 
 
 He could not understand what had changed 
 her grief to sudden merriment. Why did she 
 call him credulous and laugh until she had to
 
 l68 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 place her hand over her wildly palpitating heart? 
 She could not speak, but lay back in her chair, 
 her breath coming in little bursts. 
 
 "Could you not see I was jesting? I never 
 wrote anything." 
 
 He was immoderately relieved that it was 
 not her work he had so severely scored, and 
 then he became indignant at the deception 
 practised upon him. He had held the offend- 
 ing article until then ; but it now slipped to the 
 floor and lay there unnoticed. All the warmth 
 died out of her face, this time Penelope had 
 carried her love for jesting too far. 
 
 "Do not be dignified and proud," she im- 
 plored. " I could not resist the temptation to 
 tease you." 
 
 " It was a needlessly cruel action," he began ; 
 then his mouth relaxed into a smile which 
 threatened to develop into a hearty laugh. 
 
 She slipped off her chair, kneeling on the 
 floor, and, clasping her hands before her, said : 
 " Will you forgive me if I promise never to do 
 so no more?" 
 
 His face burned as she knelt to him. The 
 next moment she was back in her chair, re- 
 gretting her attitude. 
 
 " I should be versed in your wiles, but I do
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 169 
 
 not believe I ever shall be, nor do I believe in 
 your 'never no more.' By the way, are you 
 aware you made a mistake?" he asked, with 
 rather a sorry attempt at pleasantry. 
 
 " You know it was through a grammatical 
 error that Dickens came to believe in spiritual- 
 ism," she said. 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 " Yes ; he attended a stance, and requested 
 the attendance of Lindley Murray. 'Are you 
 the spirit of Lindley Murray ? ' he asked, and 
 the spirit said, ' I are.' " 
 
 The fallen book caught his fastidious eyes, 
 and, without having to stoop for it, he replaced 
 it upon the table. 
 
 " O grandmamma," she cried, with swift 
 daring, opening wide her dancing eyes, "what 
 long arms you have ! " 
 
 Van Arsdale opened his lips, then closed 
 them firmly. He declined to say, "So much 
 the better to hug you with, my dear." He 
 arose hurriedly; at that moment his face was 
 almost gray. 
 
 " I promised to meet Yorke at the club. 
 How good you are, Pen, to let such a stupid 
 old fellow as I am take up so much of your 
 time. You must not let me do it in future."
 
 T70 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 He looked at her eagerly, but she did not 
 perceive it. She was taken up with the import 
 of his words. 
 
 "Pen, my " He made a step forward, 
 and came face to face with a mirror. At the 
 sight of his own reflection, he drew back. The 
 marked contrast between them chilled him. 
 
 " Good-night," he murmured, passing out. 
 
 When Mrs. Luttrell came in a few moments 
 later, Penelope was still standing where Van 
 Arsdale had left her, a somnolent smile on her 
 lips. 
 
 "Well, did you succeed?" asked Mrs. 
 Luttrell. 
 
 " I do not know. It is too soon to tell." 
 
 "Did he speak at all?" 
 
 "He did nearly all the talking. O old 
 lady, dear old lady," she went on, putting her 
 arms round Mrs. Luttrell's neck, " you would 
 have laughed, laughed as I am laughing now, 
 if you had only seen us sitting here." 
 
 But the strange thing was that Penelope was 
 not laughing, but crying softly, and neither she 
 nor Mrs. Luttrell knew it.
 
 Chapter XIV. 
 
 |OYS saw Yorke only once between the 
 night of the supper and that Monday 
 afternoon when she met him at Helen Sargent's. 
 
 Kendall remarked upon his absence, and 
 when he met him, upbraided him for his ne- 
 glect ; but Yorke urged his business cares, say- 
 ing that he went nowhere, being engaged at night 
 upon a course of papers for one of the scientific 
 monthlies. Although Kendall did not doubt 
 that he was much occupied, he knew he was 
 not altogether a recluse, and he asked Loys if 
 she had shown him any coldness. 
 
 " I am quite sure that I did not. He must 
 have grown tired of us. It seems almost in- 
 credible, almost impossible, I grant you ; but 
 that is what must have occurred." 
 
 Sometimes she saw him as he and Penelope 
 returned from their rides, and sometimes as 
 he drove past with the Underhill children ; but 
 in her notes of thanks for the flowers he sent
 
 172 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 her, she did not ask him to call, feeling that 
 he knew he would be welcome, and not wishing 
 to seem to press him. But she gave some 
 thought to his sudden default. They had 
 grown very intimate in their short acquaintance, 
 for they were exceedingly congenial. Being a 
 widely read and travelled man, he had helped 
 her much ; but she now felt that the enjoyment 
 had been all on one side. 
 
 When she reached Helen Sargent's that after- 
 noon, Mrs. Sargent ushered her into the parlor, 
 saying nothing of Yorke's presence. Helen had 
 resigned her position as teacher, and was busily 
 preparing for her early departure. Upon seeing 
 Yorke, Loys would have withdrawn. 
 
 " Don't go," cried Helen, interrupting her 
 breathing exercises. "We were just finishing." 
 
 " I shall detain you only a moment. I saw 
 this in the White House this morning, and I 
 think it is what you want for your travelling- 
 gown," Loys continued, showing Helen a sample 
 of dress goods. " It is like the Mongolian 
 conscience, having neither right nor wrong 
 side." 
 
 " It is exactly what I had in mind. If you 
 are going into town, will you order it sent to 
 Mrs. Austen's for me?"
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 173 
 
 " Yes. Pardon my interruption. Good after- 
 noon, Mr. Yorke." 
 
 She failed to extend her hand, and the 
 omission hurt him. 
 
 " May I go with you as far as our roads lie 
 together? " he asked. 
 
 " I shall be glad to have you. I am going 
 to take the California Street cars," she pursued, 
 on leaving the house. " Gregory promised to 
 take me into Chinatown if he could contrive it, 
 and if not, to send one of the clerks with me." 
 
 "Would I do as a substitute? " asked Yorke. 
 
 At sight of her, all his brave resolutions had 
 weakened. He had been so unbendingly severe 
 to himself that he believed he deserved some 
 indulgence. 
 
 " Are you sure you wish to come? " 
 
 " I was never so sure of anything," he assured 
 her. 
 
 " I wish to get a few ornaments for Helen's 
 rooms in Paris. If some of the articles belong 
 to her, it will give the apartment a home-like 
 air, and I know there is more than one hour of 
 homesickness in store for her. " 
 
 They passed some of the finest residences in 
 San Francisco, many of which were now closed, 
 their owners having gone away to spend their 
 money in other places.
 
 174 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 " I suppose you have done this part of the 
 city thoroughly," Yorke remarked, as they 
 entered Chinatown. " I know Penelope is 
 fond of engineering her friends through here." 
 
 " I once went with a party of hers, but they 
 had to take me home. The odors suffocated 
 me. I have been in the restaurants and the 
 shops, but I really do not care to explore 
 further." 
 
 A band of chattering Mongolians passed 
 them on the narrow sidewalk, and turned to 
 stare at Loys. She slipped her hand within 
 Yorke's arm, pressing against him. 
 
 " I really believe you are afraid," he exclaimed. 
 
 " I know it is ridiculous, but I cannot over- 
 come the feeling. I suppose you heard Mrs. 
 Lidderdale speak of the Chinese when she was 
 here. I think she spent the greater portion of 
 her time prowling about Chinatown, and she 
 used to expand over their beautiful courteous- 
 ness and their low salamings (it was during the 
 week of their New Year that she was here) 
 until I began to wonder if I had seen the same 
 race of people as she." 
 
 Loys's purchases were very modest ones, but 
 they were not necessarily any the less pretty. 
 
 " I go about distributing these boxes in the
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 175 
 
 same magnificent manner that the Queen does 
 her India shawls," she laughed, as she chose 
 a glove -box and handkerchief-box of carved 
 sandal-wood. "Oh, here is the mate to my 
 little blue vase ! Evidently no one has had the 
 good taste to choose its fellow. Did you notice 
 that it is the real Sevres blue? How much 
 is it?" she asked, turning to the fat, oily 
 proprietor. 
 
 " Tlee dollar hap." 
 
 Loys replaced the vase on the counter. 
 " No, indeed," she said, decidedly. " I paid 
 only two dollars and twenty-five cents for the 
 other one." 
 
 "You pay only two dollar qlawter for him? " 
 leered the man, incredulously. "I gib you 
 this one for tlee dollar." 
 
 " We will take it for two dollars twenty-five, 
 and not one cent more," put in Yorke. 
 
 His tone awed the Chinaman into putting 
 the vase beside Loys's other purchases. He 
 did it grudgingly, however. 
 
 Loys added to the little pile of ornaments a 
 dainty piece of cloisonne and a carved ivory 
 paper-knife, Yorke conducting the haggling for 
 her. No self-respecting Chinaman ever dreams 
 of mentioning at once the price he really ex- 
 pects to receive.
 
 i;6 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 "May I add a little gift?" Yorke appealed. 
 " Something which can go in your package, 
 and only be discovered when Miss Sargent is 
 there?" 
 
 " Yes, I think you may ; but it must be some- 
 thing very small." 
 
 He obeyed her command to the letter. It 
 was a very small piece of Satsuma he selected, 
 but Loys could not avoid seeing the price he 
 paid for it. She made no demur, however, 
 knowing the amount was no more to him than 
 the small sum she had expended was to her. 
 
 They retraced their steps through the crowded 
 streets, and Loys was glad to reach air which 
 was not vitiated by the dying fragrance of 
 decaying fish and vegetables. 
 
 "I am going to have this afternoon to my- 
 self," affirmed Yorke to himself, as they neared 
 the library. " It is a cowardly indulgence, but 
 I am harming only myself. I am no more to 
 her than any other of Kendall's friends." 
 
 Loys ran lightly up the first flight of stairs 
 leading to the library, then paused at the 
 landing. 
 
 " I do not know what is the matter with me," 
 she protested, laboredly. " I shall have to go 
 up the next flight more slowly."
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 177 
 
 "It is too warm for you here," urged Yorke, 
 as they entered the library proper. 
 
 She was glad to follow him into the reference 
 room. They were quite alone, and sat looking 
 out of the window, exchanging malicious re- 
 marks upon the passers-by, each with a proper 
 enjoyment of the other's wit. 
 
 "There goes Bradbury up to the club," 
 exclaimed Yorke, as he espied a friend. " Does 
 he not look the typical man who lives in the 
 suburbs, who cultivates a bit of green and a 
 large family? He goes home at night, a news- 
 paper package under each arm, to read his 
 favorite political organ, while his wife placidly 
 sits beside him, darning, and his numerous 
 progeny perform their school tasks." 
 
 "That is not impromptu. You recite it 
 much too glibly. I am sure it must have been 
 embodied in some sketch of yours," Loys 
 mocked. 
 
 " But instead of following my description, 
 Bradbury is vulgarly rich, and unmarried," 
 Yorke smiled. 
 
 Loys looked about the room meditatively. 
 
 " There was a time when I knew those shelves 
 
 much more intimately than I now do. I used 
 
 to pore over those dust-stained volumes until 
 
 12
 
 178 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 my head ached, so as to be armed for the girls' 
 questions. Some of them used to make it a 
 point to hunt up the most terrifying questions, 
 simply for the pleasure of confusing me. But 
 it did not do to betray ignorance too often, nor 
 to say that I was not an encyclopedia. And 
 the quotations from Darwin and Spencer and 
 the rest of them that I knew, no girl ever 
 thought her essay complete without a few lines 
 from one of them, although she would have 
 been virtuously shocked had she read their com- 
 plete rejection of her most hallowed beliefs." 
 
 "What an appalling piece of work it must 
 have been for you to write those essays," Yorke 
 observed, innocently. 
 
 " Did I say I wrote them ? If you had ever 
 heard a school-girl's essay you would not accuse 
 me so fearlessly," she concluded, as she arose, 
 and they searched among the books. " I have 
 been having too many solids lately; I must 
 have a novel this time." 
 
 " Let me select something for you." 
 
 " Will you ? But let it be something a man 
 will also enjoy. Gregory likes to have me read 
 to him." 
 
 There was a pause before Yorke spoke. 
 "What kind of a novel is a man's novel?"
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 179 
 
 " I cannot describe the kind, although I am 
 familiar with several. Take, for instance, ' The 
 Sinner's Comedy.' I never recommended that 
 book to a man who did not enjoy it." 
 
 "You are right," agreed Yorke. "It is a 
 man's novel." 
 
 Upon leaving the library, he said, " Will you 
 go with me to get some marshmallows for the 
 Underhill children?" 
 
 She could not well refuse, and he ordered 
 also two boxes of marrons. 
 
 As he stood with her at her own door, he 
 handed her one of them, saying : " Here is 
 something for the heart-shaped dish." 
 
 She stood above him on the step, and, so 
 standing, her eyes were on a level with his. 
 
 "That little dish is no more, but the same 
 rules govern its successor : only those who help 
 empty it are allowed to fill it," she affirmed. 
 There was a half-smile in her eyes, but there 
 was also a touch of wounded pride, and at 
 sight of it Yorke's pulses leaped. 
 
 " I shall expect you to save me some for Fri- 
 day evening," he replied, alluding to the dinner- 
 party she was to give on that night in honor of 
 Helen Sargent, and to which he had been 
 invited.
 
 l8o A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 She hesitatingly extended her hand for the 
 box. 
 
 " If I told you how much we missed you, I 
 think I might persuade you to give us one of 
 our old-time evenings." 
 
 As her words repeated themselves to her, 
 she reflected that the speech could have been 
 made only by a married woman. She was 
 surprised at her own insistence ; she could 
 not recall ever before having asked a man to 
 call after he had once flagged in his attentions. 
 
 " Have you missed me ? " he asked. Un- 
 consciously he lowered his voice. 
 
 With an effort she averted her eyes. At 
 that moment, Kendall jumped from a passing 
 car, and joined them. 
 
 " I see you must have been acting as my 
 wife's escort, Yorke," he said. " Did she buy 
 all the pottery in Chinatown? Come in, old 
 fellow, to dine with us." 
 
 "Thank you. I am due this evening at 
 Whiting's. By the way, Mrs. Kendall, will you 
 chaperon a little dinner I wish to give Miss 
 Sargent, at the club?" 
 
 " Of course she will," interposed Kendall. 
 " She is only too anxious to dine away from 
 home. You know we sometimes go off on a
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. l8l 
 
 tour of the restaurants. You have a real fond- 
 ness for a 'bat,' haven't you?" he demanded 
 playfully, appealing to Loys. 
 
 " What a word ! " she reproved. " You must 
 not unmask me before Mr. Yorke. Had I 
 known you intended to sacrifice my good name 
 to your boast, I should have chosen a more 
 discreet companion." 
 
 Her face had suddenly assumed a look of 
 utter weariness, although her eyes burned with 
 unnatural brilliancy, and her lips were a thread 
 of scarlet. 
 
 " Well, Yorke, when are we to have you drop 
 in upon us in your old-time fashion?" Kendall 
 urged. " Mrs. Kendall insists that it is a wound 
 to her pride, but that you must have grown 
 weary of us. Here, Loys, add your entreaties 
 to mine." 
 
 Yorke listened for her words with almost 
 painful impatience. 
 
 " Why," she said, with an irrelevant, excited 
 laugh, " why do you wish me to try my meagre 
 suasive powers if yours have failed? " 
 
 Her laugh jarred on her ears. How many 
 times that afternoon she had laughed, enough 
 for a whole lifetime. How thoughtlessly gay 
 she had been ! She wondered if Yorke intended 
 to keep them before the door all night.
 
 182 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 " Do you know," Kendall commenced, when 
 they were alone, "you can be freezingly cold 
 at times. Why did you not ask him to call, 
 informally? " 
 
 "Did I not?" she queried. "He is coming 
 Friday evening." She sat down in the hall, 
 loosening her sealskin with nervous haste, as if 
 it had grown too heavy for her. 
 
 " Have you heard that the Geralds' troubles 
 have finally culminated in a divorce suit?" 
 gossiped Kendall. "I am sorry for Gerald. 
 What a fool that woman was not to be satisfied 
 with a good man's love ! " 
 
 "She was more than a fool. You cannot 
 blame the frog who leaped from a throne of 
 gold into the puddle, but a woman ! " 
 
 "What has occasioned this sudden change 
 of front? I thought you always said that our 
 vaunted virtue lies in not being tempted, and 
 that you urged a beautiful leniency " 
 
 "Not towards a married woman," she in- 
 terrupted. " A married woman cannot continue 
 to drift on blindly. There must come the 
 awakening, and then she must prove herself 
 brave and strong enough to trample the love 
 under foot." 
 
 "Your views satisfy me. One can see you
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 183 
 
 have never loved any man but your husband. 
 Your words sound very fine in theory. My 
 dear child, we will suppose that I had no right 
 to love you do you imagine that because I 
 had not the moral right, I could the more easily 
 conquer my love? " 
 
 His words did not seem to reach her. 
 
 "Are you going to sit there all night?" 
 he pursued. 
 
 " Do you know whose lines these are ? 
 
 " ' As one that on a lonesome road 
 Doth walk in fear and dread, 
 
 And, having once turned round, walks on 
 And turns no more his head, 
 
 Because he knows a frightful fiend 
 Doth close behind him tread.' " 
 
 "What made you imagine I would know? I 
 never read a line of poetry unless you insist 
 upon it. Ask Yorke on Friday evening, if you 
 are curious to know."
 
 Chapter XV. 
 
 [JOYS stood in the hall, waiting until Ken- 
 dall should draw on his gloves, for 
 she was going into town with him. As she 
 waited, she recognized the postman's ring, and 
 opened the door. There was only one letter 
 for her. It was from her mother. 
 
 " I am so glad," she cried. " Mother is 
 coming to the city this afternoon, and is going 
 to spend a week with us." 
 
 Kendall studied with interest the name of 
 his hatter on the lining of his hat. 
 
 " Why don't you wire her to wait until to- 
 morrow? " he proposed, in a strained voice. 
 " You must see that it would be rather incon- 
 venient to have her here to-night." 
 
 Her features stiffened as she measured him 
 with eyes which caused him to feel that he had 
 lost several inches in height. 
 
 " Why inconvenient?"she demanded, haughtily. 
 
 " You said the dining-room here would 
 accommodate only fourteen, and that you in-
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 185 
 
 tended to have only those who would be most 
 useful to Helen in the years to come," he ex- 
 plained, haltingly. " Besides, your mother will 
 not be at her ease among the people who are 
 coming." 
 
 " I think she will," she maintained. " I 
 should not dream of subjecting my father to 
 such an evening. The hours would seem in- 
 terminable to him, the gowns of the women 
 indecent, and their talk vapid. But mother 
 will enjoy it all, and look back upon the even- 
 ing as a treat. The dining-room will be some- 
 what crowded, but it cannot be avoided. Do 
 not wait for me. I am going to send a note to 
 Mr. Van Arsdale, explaining our need of him. 
 He will come to our assistance." 
 
 Kendall muttered something between his 
 teeth and slammed the house door after him. 
 
 " How dared he ! " Loys breathed in passion- 
 ate contempt. 
 
 But there was no time that morning to give 
 vent to her feelings. She despatched the note 
 to Van Arsdale, then went to her florist. 
 
 When she reached home, she found Van 
 Arsdale's reply awaiting her. He wrote that 
 he was more than pleased that she could not do 
 without him, for within the last two days he had
 
 l86 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 regretted having said she might omit him. He 
 was possessed of a devouring desire to be 
 present at the dinner. 
 
 "He does know how to confer a favor," she 
 murmured. 
 
 At one o'clock the flowers arrived, and Penel- 
 ope Browning, who had a more than amateurish 
 talent for arranging them, came over to assist 
 Loys set the table. 
 
 When the last flower was arranged, the last 
 menu-card placed, and they stepped back to 
 mark the effect, Penelope and Loys confessed 
 themselves satisfied with the result of their 
 efforts. 
 
 At four o'clock Loys went to meet her 
 mother. Penelope, who had remained during 
 Loys's absence, disembarrassed Mrs. Yerrington 
 of her wraps. 
 
 " Are you going to show your mother the 
 table now ? " she inquired. 
 
 " Yes. You know, mother dear, I wrote you 
 about Helen Sargent's going to Paris, and to- 
 night we are giving her a little dinner." 
 
 " I wish I 'd waited until the morning," mur- 
 mured Mrs. Yerrington. 
 
 " You will not to-morrow," prophesied Pe- 
 nelope. " You are going to enjoy a delightful 
 evening."
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 187 
 
 Loys opened the dining-room door, and Mrs. 
 Yerrington stood looking about her with be- 
 wildered eyes. 
 
 " Why, it 's fairy-land ! " she exclaimed, after 
 a pause. " O Loys, I wish I had n't come 
 to-day ! " 
 
 " I wish I had time to scold you, but I must 
 run away, for I have a letter to write before 
 dressing," Penelope remarked. 
 
 Loys accompanied Penelope to the door, 
 to thank her for what she had done. When 
 she returned to the room, her mother said : 
 " No one knows I am here, and I '11 have a 
 bite in my own room and listen to the music 
 from there. I could n't be comfortable here, 
 dear. I wouldn't know what to do with all 
 these forks and glasses and things." 
 
 " In a moment you will. Now, listen." 
 Loys explained the use of each article, and, 
 when she had finished, Mrs. Yerrington repeated 
 her words. She perceived that Loys would not 
 permit her to remain upstairs, and she was 
 intent upon doing her best. 
 
 " Do not trouble about anything," advised 
 Loys. " You are going in to dinner with Mr. 
 Yorke, and Mr. Van Arsdale will sit on the 
 other side of you, and Penelope next to
 
 1 88 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 him, so you will be surrounded by those you 
 know." 
 
 From the night of the fire Loys had been 
 forced to have her hair dressed, for her arm 
 was in a measure disabled. The woman came 
 twice that day, and Loys stood over her as she 
 arranged Mrs. Yerrington's still luxuriant hair. 
 
 Mrs. Yerrington started back in naive aston- 
 ishment when Loys at length allowed her to 
 look in the glass. The lustreless black silk 
 she wore had been made only a few weeks 
 previous, under Loys's supervision, and Mrs. 
 Yerrington had worn it only once ; but on that 
 occasion she had dressed her hair in an un- 
 compromisingly hard knot, and a bunch of 
 violets had not been fastened at her breast by 
 Loys's cunning hands. 
 
 "What have you done to me?" 
 
 " I merely touched you with my wand. You 
 did not know how pretty you were, did you ? " 
 queried Loys, mischievously, shaking out a 
 handkerchief of cobweb fineness for her. 
 
 From the moment that Mrs. Yerrington no- 
 ticed the change in her appearance, she grew 
 more assured. 
 
 Kendall reached home as Loys was putting 
 the last touch to her toilet. She heard him on
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 189 
 
 the steps, and awaited his coming in trepida- 
 tion, for she did not know how he would bear 
 himself. 
 
 He entered the room, affecting a boyish gayety 
 at sight of Mrs. Yerrington, with whom he was 
 a great favorite. When he turned to greet 
 Loys, there was a look of pleading in his eyes 
 to which she could not remain cold. What- 
 ever else he was, he was her husband; she 
 could not reject his overtures for peace. 
 
 As he bent to kiss her, he whispered : " Do 
 you forgive me? You do not know how 
 wretched I have been on account of what 
 happened." 
 
 She made no attempt to escape from his 
 arms, and his face brightened. The instant he 
 found he was forgiven, he forgave himself. 
 
 " I have brought you something to wear 
 around your neck," he proceeded, reddening as 
 he took from his pocket a jeweler's box. 
 
 Her features threatened to stiffen again as he 
 showed her a string of pearls. She recoiled 
 from the thought that he had attempted to 
 bribe her into forgiveness. She made an 
 attempt to receive the gift graciously, but her 
 failure was covered by her mother's exclama- 
 tions of admiration.
 
 190 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 " I know you always said you did not wish 3. 
 necklace ; but this is such a simple affair that it 
 will not hide your throat," observed Kendall, as 
 he clasped the pearls about her neck, with a kiss. 
 
 As he went to his dressing-room, Mrs. Yer- 
 rington said : " I like to see you together. 
 What a happy wife you are ! " 
 
 "Am I not?" Loys echoed, moving the 
 pearls as if they were too tight. 
 
 They went to the drawing-room, where Ken- 
 dall soon joined them. Loys had taken a last 
 look into the kitchen and at the table, and 
 awaited the guests with a clear conscience ; 
 she had done her best for their welfare. 
 
 There was no dilatory one that night. They 
 were all well-known to one another, and even 
 before taking their places at the table there 
 was no lack of merry talk. 
 
 From her seat Loys could see Kendall in- 
 tently watching her mother, consequently she 
 became painfully alive to her every movement. 
 Fortunately, Mr. Whiting, who sat at Loys's 
 right, spoke with the skill of the professional 
 talker, and his pungent wit concealed the fact 
 that she was doing her best to be stupid. It 
 was a wit which was appreciated none the less 
 because it stopped at nothing. If Mr. Whiting's
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. Ipl 
 
 auditors were sometimes haunted by the reflec- 
 tion that it was unkind to laugh at his unspar- 
 ing remarks on their friends, they speedily re- 
 doubled their laughter, spurred on by the 
 thought that they, in their turn, would serve 
 him as food for his reputation of splendid 
 daring. 
 
 After a little, Loys perceived that Yorke was 
 careful, at the beginning of each course, to give 
 Mrs. Yerrington her queue, in an unostentatious 
 manner. They were chatting naturally, Yorke 
 rather more talkative than was his wont, but 
 drawing more than monosyllabic replies from 
 his companion. Penelope and Van Arsdale 
 also joined in their conversation at times. They 
 seemed to be having a very merry time, as they 
 all did. 
 
 With a lighter heart Loys turned to Mr. 
 Whiting, rewarding his efforts with smiles which 
 bore no traces of the pain she was bearing ; for 
 she could not shut out from her sight Kendall's 
 implacable eyes upon her mother, and Yorke's 
 thoughtfulness. 
 
 The dinner was quoted afterward as having 
 been one of the most brilliant of the season ; 
 but no particular credit could be attributed to 
 Loys because of this. She had, as usual, gath-
 
 192 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 ered about her a group of people quite capable 
 of providing their own entertainment. Unless 
 there were some good reason for it, she re- 
 frained from inviting people who expected to 
 be amused. Naturally, she preferred the man 
 who expects to amuse. 
 
 Penelope Browning had assured her that she 
 had made the mistake of inviting people who 
 could talk but not listen ; but that night Loys 
 found no fault with them on that account. 
 
 She toyed with her food, but could hardly 
 force herself to swallow a mouthful. No one 
 else appeared to think the room warm, yet she 
 found it stifling, and the pearls about her neck 
 seemed to be suffocating her. 
 
 As it was nearing the time for the women to 
 leave the dining-room, Mr. Whiting said to her : 
 " I wish you would inaugurate the sensible plan 
 of remaining with us while we smoke a cigar. 
 You know it is only incense burned to you." 
 
 She wondered how many times the remark 
 had served. 
 
 " Come," he continued, "if you are wise you 
 will drop the foolish custom to-night." 
 
 The lights and flowers were dancing before 
 her eyes ; she was only too glad to escape from 
 the room.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 193 
 
 "I make no pretensions to being wise, I 
 could not live up to them," she averred, with a 
 smile which would have reconciled any man to 
 her unmitigated stupidity. She arose as she 
 spoke and marshalled her troops from the 
 field. 
 
 The coolness of the drawing-room revived 
 her; but when the men rejoined them, the air 
 soon became heated. 
 
 Loys was standing near the door as Helen 
 arose to sing. The girl was looking trium- 
 phantly beautiful ; but from her eager way 
 of observing Yorke, Loys could not help 
 feeling relieved that she was so soon to de- 
 part. 
 
 The lights suddenly began to waver and grow 
 dim to Loys; and as the first note broke on 
 the air, it seemed to come from a great dis- 
 tance. She made a few uncertain steps into 
 the hall, endeavoring to reach a divan she 
 remembered they had placed under the stairs ; 
 but the more she tried, the further it receded 
 from her. Then she felt herself carried to 
 the lounge and some one chafing her hands. 
 She knew it was Yorke, but could not open 
 her eyes. 
 
 " Loys," he whispered, in unguarded tones,
 
 194 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 leaning over her in fright, " Loys, do you hear 
 me?" 
 
 She felt she could now speak if she made 
 the effort, but she made none. After all, what 
 were two minutes in a whole life-time? No 
 one should rob her of them. She would banish 
 the thought of Gregory from her thoughts for 
 those poor seconds ; she would 
 
 Even as she was determining what she would 
 do, she opened her eyes and sat up. 
 
 " It was so warm," she faltered. 
 
 "Shall I call your mother or Ken " 
 
 " No one is to know," she broke in. " Prob- 
 ably they have not missed us." 
 
 Yorke made no movement to help her rise. 
 The muscles of his face were tense and rigid. 
 
 " You have done too much to-day," he said. 
 " You must not tax your " 
 
 " I did nothing," she protested. " It was 
 only the heat." 
 
 Van Arsdale was the only one who had re- 
 marked their absence. He regarded Loys 
 curiously. He never remembered her being 
 so fitfully gay as she was that night. Usually 
 she was content to make others shine ; but 
 during the remainder of the evening her con- 
 versation was spangled with wit. With reck-
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 195 
 
 less prodigality she scattered her caustic bons 
 mots into every quarter until Kendall realized 
 the extent of her nervous exhaustion ; for it was 
 only when Loys was thoroughly overwrought 
 that she was so madly gay. 
 
 No one seemed inclined to leave, but Yorke 
 finally contrived to break up the gathering. 
 
 Kendall waited until Mrs. Yerrington had 
 gone upstairs before speaking to Loys. By a 
 deft touch here and there, she was bringing 
 order out of the chaos which reigned. 
 
 " Stop," he ordered, as she was about to 
 wheel a divan into place. " Jane will have 
 time enough to arrange the rooms in the 
 morning. You have done far too much as it 
 is." 
 
 " I realized the dinner was a success when 
 Mr. Whiting quoted, ' Avec une pareille sauce, 
 on mangerait son pere ; ' but was it a pleasant 
 evening? I never can determine in our own 
 house. Were you pleased? " 
 
 "More than pleased. There was not a 
 moment's tedium. But you are not feeling 
 well," he said, anxiously. " What is it, my 
 wife?" 
 
 " Put out the lights ; they make the air so 
 warm."
 
 196 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 As she listlessly watched him fan out the last 
 glimmer from the lamps, she came to a sudden 
 determination. 
 
 " Do not snuff out the candles yet," she 
 commanded. " I must tell you that I tried to 
 pose as a heroine to-night. I almost lost con- 
 sciousness out in the hall, and Mr. Yorke had 
 to carry me to the divan." 
 
 Kendall reached her side quickly, and, sitting 
 down, drew her to his knee. 
 
 " It was my dam ugly temper of this morn- 
 ing that caused it, and I let you do too much. 
 Tell me where the pain is. Were you uncon- 
 scious long? " he asked, placing his hand above 
 her heart. 
 
 " Not more than a minute. I felt that I was 
 falling through bottomless space ; I suppose my 
 heart must have lost a beat. Oh, foolish one, 
 you have grown quite pale. Then you do not 
 wish me to die just yet? " 
 
 "Die?" he echoed, with trembling lips. 
 " I forbid you to say that word. Have you 
 no idea how it pains me to hear it in connec- 
 tion with you? To live without you, my be- 
 loved " He hid his face upon her bosom, 
 endeavoring to regain command of himself. 
 
 " Have I ever given you cause to regret
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 197 
 
 having married me?" she demanded, in wist- 
 ful persistence. 
 
 As he took her in his arms to carry her up the 
 staircase, he answered by a laugh, which con- 
 tented her. 
 
 " And I never shall," she added, vehemently.
 
 Chapter XVI. 
 
 JHEY had accompanied Helen Sargent 
 across the bay, and seen her safely 
 installed in the flower-laden drawing-room ; so 
 it was late that evening when Penelope and 
 Van Arsdale, Loys and Kendall reached home. 
 The gloom of the parting was still upon them, 
 and they were inclined to be somewhat silent 
 until Van Arsdale asked them their plans for 
 the summer. 
 
 "Except for an occasional run down to 
 Monterey over Saturday and Sunday, or a very 
 impressive invitation to spend a few days in 
 some friend's cottage," answered Kendall, look- 
 ing laughingly at Penelope, "I think we shall 
 stay quietly at home." 
 
 " In the good old times I believe people 
 went to the country to wear out their old 
 clothes," remarked Penelope. "I wish those 
 days would return. How can men believe that 
 women dress for them, seeing the gowns we 
 need for the sea-shore, where, as every one
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. IQ9 
 
 knows, men are as plentiful as flies about honey. 
 I suppose we shall have to seek consolation in 
 the thought that, as the little boy said in his 
 composition, the good Lord liked Eve so much 
 better than he did Adam, there have been more 
 of her sex ever since. What are you going to 
 do, Riker?" 
 
 " The Yorkes have asked me to spend a few 
 weeks at their place in San Rafael." 
 
 " Yorke is variable," observed Kendall. 
 " He has not been near us since he paid his 
 call of digestion." 
 
 " He has been down at his ranch the past 
 week," reminded Penelope. " I must go home 
 in a few moments, for he is coming to-night. 
 The air is deliciously soft. Will you go to the 
 Cliff if I order the horses?" 
 
 " I am too tired to-night," said Loys. 
 
 At that moment the maid handed Kendall a 
 telegram. Murmuring a word of pardon, he 
 tore open the envelop. He read the message 
 at a glance, then sat staring blindly down at 
 the words. In an instant his face had become 
 haggard. 
 
 Loys quickly left her seat and walked round 
 to him. He remained passive as she read the 
 dispatch :
 
 200 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 " Come immediately. There is no hope. 
 Your mother has regained her reason and 
 wishes to see you." 
 
 It was signed " Robert Kendall " the name 
 of Kendall's father. 
 
 "Your mother?" Loys echoed. "Why, 
 Gregory," she went on, placing her hand upon 
 his shoulder, " some one is trying to play a 
 sorry jest " 
 
 The expression of mingled misery and plead- 
 ing in his eyes killed the words on her lips. 
 She looked at Van Arsdale, mechanically trac- 
 ing a pattern on the table, at Penelope Brown- 
 ing, who had risen, pale to the lips. There 
 came to her a shadowy recognition of the truth. 
 Then she closed her eyes for a second; the 
 overwhelming light blinded her. She shrank 
 from the unbounded pity shining in Penelope's 
 face. No one had ever dared to pity her 
 before. She would have no one pity her now. 
 
 " For a moment I forgot," she murmured. 
 
 Kendall passed the telegram to Van Arsdale, 
 explaining, " My father must have gone to 
 Napa this morning, perhaps Dr. Newell 
 wired for him. He did not know she was 
 ill." 
 
 Van Arsdale looked at the clock, whose
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 2OI 
 
 brazen voice was plainly audible in the quiet 
 room. 
 
 "We must leave the house within ten min- 
 utes if you wish to make the next train," he 
 said. 
 
 He knew there would be time in half an 
 hour, but he was anxious to escape from Loys's 
 presence. 
 
 " I will get ready," Loys began, turning from 
 the room. 
 
 " You cannot go," Kendall broke in. " There 
 will not be time, and it is better I should go 
 alone. She does not know you." 
 
 " I shall get your dressing-bag," she said. 
 
 Penelope could not keep pace with her on 
 the stairs. Loys gathered together such arti- 
 cles as he would need, Penelope standing by 
 helplessly. 
 
 "You will wire me the first thing in the 
 morning, Gregory," she said, calmly, as she met 
 him in the hall ; " and if you find you can use 
 me, let me know." 
 
 He did not trust himself to look at her as he 
 touched her cheek. He tried to speak, but the 
 words failed him, and he abruptly followed Van 
 Arsdale. 
 
 Loys continued to stand at the open door 
 long after they had passed out of sight.
 
 202 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 " Come in, dear," directed Penelope. 
 
 " You left your wraps in the sitting-room, did 
 you not? Let me get them for you." 
 
 "But I am going to stay with you." 
 
 " No, you are not ; you are going home 
 now," Loys declared, impatiently. She hurried 
 into the room for Penelope's belongings. 
 
 " Let me stay with you. Don't send me 
 away to-night," Penelope entreated. 
 
 " I know how much you would like to be 
 with me, but I wish to be quite by myself." 
 
 Loys opened the door, and Penelope could 
 do nothing else but pass out. 
 
 " I will not annoy you ; I will not even ask 
 to sleep with you, if you will only let me stay 
 in the house." 
 
 " How good you are ! but you have always 
 been good to me, Pen. There, go home." 
 
 Loys closed the door. Penelope listened 
 vainly for some sound from within, but after 
 some moments of waiting, stole noiselessly 
 down the steps and home. 
 
 Loys had sunk down upon a hall chair. 
 Her thoughts were still benumbed, she only 
 knew she was glad to be alone. She wondered 
 if it were only last night at the play that Pe- 
 nelope and she had laughed as the leading
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 2O3 
 
 lady explained, in a speech of five minutes' 
 duration, her desire to be alone. 
 
 Suddenly there flashed upon her the remem- 
 brance of that afternoon at Mrs. Wills, the 
 medium's. Yes, some one had withheld some- 
 thing it was of vital importance she should 
 have known. She aimlessly pleated and un- 
 pleated her handkerchief. It occurred to her 
 that her calm was unnatural : if she had read 
 of a woman acting, as she was acting now, 
 she would have so characterized it. But of 
 what avail would tears or useless rebellion be 
 now? 
 
 She lived over again the night of her engage- 
 ment. How tired she had been ! She saw 
 Kendall as he sat plucking viciously at the 
 tassel of the chair, and combating her views 
 on her sister's marriage. That night, too, he 
 had had in his pocket the letter from Penelope 
 Browning, containing the offer to her of the 
 European trip. 
 
 Loys shudderingly reflected that Mrs. Wills 
 had been right : she had gone with the wrong 
 one. 
 
 And Gregory's hardly concealed joy at all of 
 his intimate friends being out of town, and his 
 father's coldness in London, were now explained.
 
 204 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 Those who might have saved her had been away, 
 or had thought she knew, and dared not speak. 
 No one had given her one warning whisper. 
 
 His father had known what Gregory thought 
 of her, why had he not told her ? The 
 answer came to her readily : all along he had 
 believed, with her, that she would never marry 
 him. 
 
 Loys had not dared to question Penelope ; 
 but she knew that the insanity was hereditary, 
 else it would not have been so completely hid- 
 den from her, and they would not all have 
 preserved such an ominous silence when she 
 had brought forward her views on heredity. 
 
 If her child had lived But it was foolish 
 to try to exaggerate her troubles. Mercifully, 
 the child was dead. As the child was dead, she 
 could forgive Gregory. She was the only one 
 to suffer, and nothing much mattered as only 
 she was to suffer. 
 
 She groped her way to the stairs and slowly 
 toiled up them. Her clothes oppressed her, 
 and with trembling fingers she unfastened her 
 dress, and slipped into a white woollen tea- 
 gown. She shuddered as her fingers came in 
 contact with her body, they were icy cold, 
 and her face was burning.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 205 
 
 " I shall take my bath now, instead of later. 
 It will warm me," she decided, walking to the 
 bath-room. She turned on the water, and 
 stood watching it as it welled up higher and 
 higher. There recurred to her the stories she 
 had heard of death by drowning. They all 
 agreed that it was a pleasant death. The tub 
 was more than three -fourths full, but she made 
 no movement to turn off the water. To think 
 that by merely holding one's head under it for 
 a few 
 
 With an effort she tore herself away from its 
 fascination, and ran into her room. The maid 
 was there, arranging the bed for the night. 
 
 " Please turn off the water, Jane. After all, 
 I shall not bathe now." 
 
 She covered her eyes with her hands, draw- 
 ing a long, quivering breath. She cowered 
 away from the thought which had been with 
 her a moment before. 
 
 The house-bell tingled. 
 
 " It is Penelope," she thought. " Was she 
 afraid of this that she was so insistent? " 
 
 It was not Penelope's voice she recognized : 
 it was Yorke's. 
 
 Loys restrained an unseasonable desire to 
 laugh. What had Penelope feared, that, after
 
 206 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 her rude treatment, she had not ventured to 
 come herself, but had sent Yorke? In another 
 moment her anger was dissipated. She had 
 no right to deprive Penelope of her rest 
 when she could quiet her simply by receiving 
 Yorke. 
 
 She descended the stairs. One glance at 
 his face convinced her that he knew. 
 
 " You are in trouble," he exclaimed, stand- 
 ing at the foot of the stairs, and she a step or 
 two above him. The subdued light of the 
 lamp above her clearly marked the dark 
 shadows about her unquiet eyes, the tense 
 muscles of her mouth. 
 
 " Yes : Gregory received a telegram from his 
 father that his mother is dying, but conscious," 
 she explained. " It would have been more 
 merciful, I think, had she gone without re- 
 covering her reason. She has not seen Gregory 
 now for, for " 
 
 " I think it must be quite ten years," he 
 supplied, not appearing to notice her hesitancy. 
 " The sight of him only disturbed her ; and 
 though she did not recognize her husband, she 
 was glad to see him." 
 
 "Yes, so I have heard. Of course we did 
 not speak often upon the subject, so I must
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 2OJ 
 
 appear very ignorant ; but was she violent 
 or " 
 
 " Only melancholy," put in Yorke, quickly. 
 "At first she remembered Mr. Kendall and 
 Gregory at times, but during the past fifteen 
 years she has known no one," he went on, 
 thinking it wiser that she should know the 
 truth instead of torturing herself by her 
 imaginings. 
 
 " I wish, oh, I wish she did not know them 
 now ! " she whispered. " To think that she 
 should recognize them only now, at the end, 
 and know all the closed years behind her. It 
 is pitifully sad to think of, is it not?" she 
 demanded, dry-eyed. 
 
 " You are not to think of it," he commanded, 
 roughly. 
 
 "She will hardly recognize Gregory," she 
 continued, monotonously, unheeding his order. 
 " In fifteen years he must have changed a great 
 deal. Upstairs I have a faded picture of her, 
 taken shortly after Gregory's birth. She is 
 holding him in her arms, and her face is lit by 
 such a look of mother-love. She must have 
 been very beautiful. 
 
 " I must not keep you standing any longer. 
 Are you going back to Penelope?" she con-
 
 208 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 tinued, without any clear knowledge of her 
 words. " You will tell her that I am going to 
 bed at once." 
 
 " That is wise," he remarked, not disputing 
 that he had just left Penelope. " Mrs. Kendall, 
 will you not permit Penelope to remain with 
 you ? It will be much better for both of you, 
 and it will comfort her to think you wish her 
 with you now." 
 
 " But I do not. You must go now." 
 
 He could think of no excuse to urge for his 
 continued presence, although when he was with- 
 out the door a number of reasons came to him. 
 
 When Loys regained her room, the sinister 
 quiet of the house wore upon her. 
 
 She sank wearily down upon the couch. 
 She would go to bed as soon as she had rested 
 a moment. 
 
 She hoped Gregory would reach there in 
 time. It would be too cruel if his mother 
 should be deprived of one last look at him. 
 
 She held the photograph which she had 
 -nentioned, and thoughtfully studied it. She 
 wondered if Mr. Kendall had known of the 
 taint in the blood at the time of his marriage. 
 Suddenly, from out the storehouse of her 
 memory, there came the recollection of a frag-
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 2OQ 
 
 ment of conversation between Gregory and his 
 father that she had overheard in London. 
 
 Mr. Kendall had said, " I shall never forgive 
 you this; " and Gregory had demanded, "And 
 have I nothing to forgive you? You knew 
 it before you married, and still it did not 
 prevent " 
 
 At the time, Gregory had, in some manner, 
 explained the words to her ; now she no longer 
 needed his explanation. Everything was illu- 
 minated by one awful fact. 
 
 As she continued to look down upon the 
 pictured face, the horror of the whole thing 
 broke more fully upon her. 
 
 "I cannot bear it," she cried, pushing the 
 picture from her. " If she had only gone with- 
 out realizing what had happened ; but to think 
 of her now, trying to comprehend all that has 
 passed, and only understanding one thing. It 
 is maddening to think of. Poor woman ! 
 
 "I must be calm," she pursued, as in her 
 excited march up and, down the room she 
 caught sight of her figt re in the glass. " I 
 must be calm for their sake. When it is all 
 over, they will look to me for comfort, and I 
 must be able to give it to them. They will 
 expect me to "
 
 210 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 She laid her head on the cushion. " If I 
 could only put the sight from me," she mur- 
 mured. " He said it was a private asylum, but 
 the shriekings and the I shall go mad 
 myself if I persist in this," she broke off. 
 
 Every nook and corner seemed to be alive 
 with uncanny sounds. She was afraid to raise 
 her eyes. Why had she not permitted Pe- 
 nelope to remain with her, or Jane? Where 
 was Bishop Yorke? She had begged him to 
 stay with her, but he had pushed her aside. 
 Only Gregory was good to her, and now he was 
 mad. No, not mad, but she must laugh and 
 talk a great deal to keep him from becoming 
 melancholy. Oh, yes, she would laugh. What 
 mad laughter it was. But did not King Solo- 
 mon write, "I said of laughter, it is mad"? 
 What a whirling dance her thoughts were lead- 
 ing her ! 
 
 When she recovered consciousness, she was 
 lying on the floor. After a little, she got to 
 her feet, and walked to the glass. There was 
 an irregular blue mark on her temple, evi- 
 dently she had struck against a chair in her 
 fall. 
 
 " I cannot breathe hi this house," she asser- 
 ted, sullenly. " I could sleep if I were at home.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 211 
 
 I always slept well during vacation. They will 
 be glad to see me, and mother will help me 
 undress, and kiss me after I am in bed. I 
 know I shall sleep there." 
 
 She made ready for the street, and, turning 
 off the lights, walked out of the room. The 
 house was then in utter darkness save for a 
 faint Alight in the lower hall. 
 
 At the corner of the street she paused, but 
 after some moments, awaking to the fact that 
 it was so late the cars had ceased to run, she 
 turned her steps toward town. 
 
 Behind her she heard distinctly the regular 
 footfall of a man, which broke, with exaggerated 
 sound, upon the stone flagging ; but now that 
 she was on the street, she was no longer afraid. 
 
 San Francisco is essentially a city of hills, and 
 the Kendalls lived in one of its highest portions. 
 The heights Loys climbed that night would have 
 been, at any other time, almost impossible to 
 her, for she was not a sturdy walker ; but now 
 she moved on without pause. 
 
 Yorke kept a few feet behind her, ready to 
 spring to her side should there be need of him. 
 Now and then a baker or a milkman rattled by 
 in his wagon, but otherwise they met no one ; 
 and Yorke was willing that she should thor-
 
 212 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 oughly tire herself, when he thought she might, 
 of her own accord, retrace her steps. 
 
 They commenced to near the livelier portions 
 of the town, and Yorke felt that he ought to 
 declare his presence and take her home, yet 
 shrank from doing so. A moment later a man 
 stepped from a neighboring doorway, and, peer- 
 ing into Loys's face, observed, "You're out 
 late, my pretty one." 
 
 The salutation effectually wakened her. She 
 shrank back as Yorke stepped forward and took 
 her arm. The man had passed on. 
 
 " Come," said Yorke, " let me take you 
 home." 
 
 "Where was I going? I remember now," 
 she pursued, putting her hand to her head with 
 a pitiful little gesture. " I was going to mother." 
 
 "Yes, but we are going home now," he 
 rejoined. 
 
 She made no motion to turn. Her lips set 
 into a hard line of determination ; but Yorke 
 grasped her arm firmly, and set her face home- 
 ward. Once she endeavored to wrest herself 
 free from him, saying, " I will not go back. Do 
 you hear? I will not go back." 
 
 He only held her the more securely, affirm- 
 ing, with unswerving decision, " You are going 
 back."
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 213 
 
 " Going back," she repeated, drearily. " Do 
 you know to what you are taking me back? " 
 
 But even that insidious question did not 
 sway him. 
 
 There was not a vehicle of any description 
 in sight, nor was there any means of procuring 
 one, and he was forced to see her walk. They 
 were very quiet for the first seven or eight 
 blocks, and then her steps began to flag. 
 
 "I shall have to rest," she said at length. 
 
 She sat down upon some steps, and Yorke 
 stood beside her. The bruise on her forehead 
 was revealed by a street lamp, and he surmised 
 how she must have come by it. He almost 
 wished that she would again lose consciousness 
 that he might carry her. The deadly exhaus- 
 tion of her face and the fierce splendor of her 
 eyes unnerved him. 
 
 They resumed their walk. Once or twice 
 her strength threatened to give out, but she 
 succeeded in reaching home. At the corner of 
 the street she tried to withdraw her arm from 
 Yorke's. 
 
 " If I need only not go back," she implored. 
 
 He affected not to hear. His lips were stiff. 
 
 " We are almost there now," he said, forming 
 his words with an effort, while his steps uncon- 
 sciously loitered.
 
 214 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 Not even the deadly hostility he cherished 
 toward Kendall for his deceit made him falter 
 in taking Loys back to him ; but it was not an 
 easy task. He knew that her present mood 
 would pass, and that in all the years to come 
 Kendall would never hear a reproach or mur- 
 mur from her ; but Yorke also realized the daily 
 torment she would undergo, the suppression of 
 all natural feeling, and at that instant all his 
 soul revolted at the sacrifice he was countenan- 
 cing and even dictating. But a saner moment 
 showed him there was no other road open to 
 her. After all, Kendall was her husband, and 
 she could do nothing to put her name in the 
 mouth of the world. She was a woman ; her 
 hands were tied. She would continue to live 
 on with Kendall, giving the outside world no 
 cause to doubt her happiness, and making her 
 life a decorous sham, as was demanded of her. 
 And Kendall would be quite happy, and she 
 
 With desperate courage Yorke fitted the 
 latch-key in the door and opened it. He 
 paused uncertainly in the hall, unwilling to 
 leave her alone in the dark, empty house, but 
 feeling that she could not now call the servants. 
 His mind was not so elastic as usual ; it 
 worked with confused laboriousness.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 215 
 
 " I shall light your gas for you," he said at 
 last. 
 
 She offered no objection, and he went up 
 the stairs, into the room, and made it ablaze 
 with light. He was not anxious for her to 
 have the darkness for company. He did not 
 stay to look about him, but hurriedly rejoined 
 her in the lower hall. 
 
 The expression of her face had changed 
 during his absence. All the drawn hardness 
 had left it. She was again as he had always 
 known her. One gloved hand rested upon the 
 newel post for support. She raised her head 
 at his approach. 
 
 " I have given you much trouble to-night," 
 she began, in her usual low voice, though there 
 was now an undercurrent of utter fatigue in it, 
 "but I shall not attempt to thank you, for I 
 know you were glad to help me when I so much 
 needed a friend." 
 
 "We are friends : we always shall be friends." 
 
 Her hand rested in his in perfect confidence. 
 That he loved her she knew, but she also knew 
 that she had nothing to fear from him. From 
 that night on he would understand her great 
 need of friends, and not deprive her of his 
 friendship.
 
 2l6 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 " You must retire now," he went on, in a tone 
 of authority which admitted of no appeal. 
 " Make the bed look as though you had oc- 
 cupied it, and when you are ready, call the 
 maid, saying you have grown nervous. I shall 
 wait here, in the shadow, until I hear her go 
 to your room ; then I shall go away. Good- 
 night." 
 
 She made no demur; she was completely 
 dominated by the spell of his stronger nature. 
 
 As he was about to release her hand, there 
 came to him the full significance of their part- 
 ing. He turned her hand until it lay with the 
 palm up, then reverently bent his head and 
 kissed the flesh, which lay there like a crumpled 
 rose-leaf. 
 
 She went up the staircase and disappeared. 
 After a time he heard her pass into the hall 
 again, and shortly return with the maid. Then 
 he left the house. 
 
 His brain was reeling. He suffered the more 
 keenly because he felt his own helplessness. 
 If he could only lessen her burden, he imagined 
 he could bear his own grief more bravely. 
 There recurred to him her last words. Yes, 
 she needed friends, and she wanted him for 
 her friend.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 217 
 
 "Friend?" he breathed, in cynical derision. 
 He could not deceive himself as to his feeling 
 toward her when every nerve was tingling with 
 love. Yet it was only by being her friend that 
 he could be of service to her. He must blot 
 out all this mad longing, which dishonored his 
 friendship with Kendall. He must 
 
 He recoiled before the utter hopelessness of 
 it all. 
 
 Before he turned his face homeward that 
 morning, he had battled with himself and 
 imagined he had come out victor. At least, he 
 had not flinched from the hard truth. He saw 
 clearly the incalculable harm his love could 
 bring her, and he was resolved to be her friend. 
 
 A servant was washing down the marble steps 
 when he reached home. The man stood look- 
 ing after Yorke until he disappeared into the 
 house. 
 
 " He 's been having one of the devil's own 
 nights of it," he mused, " and he 's paying for 
 it now with a racking good headache. But 
 you 've got to pay for everything in this world, 
 one way or the other," he concluded, with a 
 wise shake of the head.
 
 Chapter XVII. 
 
 JENDALL was gone only two days. On 
 the third morning he returned home 
 unannounced. Loys chanced to be walking 
 through the hall when he entered the house. 
 
 "Is she " she began, advancing to meet 
 him. 
 
 "No," he corrected, quickly. "No; she is 
 alive. All danger is past, but she no longer 
 knows either of us." 
 
 She forced him to lie down on the couch, 
 and then she brought a flask of eau de cologne, 
 and bathed his brow. 
 
 " When you are rested, you shall tell me 
 about it," she said. "But now you must 
 sleep." 
 
 " I cannot sleep," he protested. " You do 
 not know what I have undergone. I would 
 not wish my worst enemy to go through such 
 scenes as I have witnessed. To see her trying 
 to fathom out all that had taken place, and 
 then, when she was beginning to pierce the
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 darkness, to have it envelop her again. Great 
 God ! ^t was awful ; it was maddening. Loys, 
 what must you think of me " 
 
 With all her feeble strength she pushed him 
 back upon the cushions. The wildness of his 
 eyes filled her with paralyzing fear. 
 
 "You must go to sleep," she dictated. "I 
 shall bring you a light breakfast, and then you 
 must try to sleep." 
 
 He arose, and, grasping her arms, faced her. 
 
 " Do you know what you are thinking?" he 
 demanded, vehemently. "You imagine you 
 already see in me the seeds of my mother's 
 disorder. But I am only exhausted from the 
 loss of sleep and the strain put upon me. I do 
 not know why, but I feel certain my mind will 
 never become affected. Don't turn from me. 
 I sinned against you, but my love was stronger 
 than my consciousness of what was right ; and 
 even knowing all the misery I have brought 
 you, if I had to do it all over " 
 
 " Hush ! You must prove your love for me 
 by lying down and letting me take care of 
 you." 
 
 " I think I could bear your reproaches 
 better than this," he exclaimed, covering his 
 eyes with his hand. She stood motionless and
 
 220 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 cold. With sudden passion he drew her down 
 beside him. 
 
 " Do you hate me, or do you love me ? " he 
 questioned, holding her with cruel firmness. 
 
 There was a throb of wild rebellion, which 
 soon passed. Her life was to be a living lie : 
 she must not shrink from the beginning. She 
 put from her forever the oppressive longing she 
 had to speak the truth. 
 
 " After you are rested, you will see that you 
 must not put such questions to your wife," she 
 said. 
 
 " Of course, if the little one had lived, I 
 know you could not forgive me, nor would I 
 myself. But she did ^ not. We are all alone, 
 and there is no reason why we should not be 
 happy, is there?" 
 
 And she answered, " None." 
 
 In a week Kendall had apparently forgotten 
 all that had transpired. He always contrived 
 to convince himself that he was more sinned 
 against than sinning. At first he seemed to har- 
 bor some resentment against Van Arsdale and 
 Penelope for having been present that night, 
 and once or twice he murmured petulantly 
 that he would appreciate their society more 
 if they were not favored with so much of it.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 221 
 
 Loys did not try to combat his feeling. 
 She, too, longed to escape from them. She 
 seldom detected Van Arsdale's eyes upon her, 
 yet she thought she understood the sensations 
 of a fly impaled upon a pin being studied 
 under a microscope. 
 
 She had never cared for the theatre unless 
 the play were an exceptionally good one ; but 
 they now went to every representation, good, 
 bad, and indifferent. She so arranged matters 
 that they rarely spent an evening alone. At 
 last Kendall rebelled. 
 
 " It is all very well to have people dine with 
 us twice, or even three times, a week, but I am 
 not going to have some one here all the time. 
 We are not conducting a restaurant. Recently 
 we have been staying up too late. You cannot 
 stand it. Van Arsdale told me to-day that I 
 ought to send you away for a time. He insists 
 that you are not looking well." 
 
 " Perhaps I was wearing an unbecoming 
 gown when he last saw me," she suggested. 
 
 The explanation did not satisfy him. 
 
 "You have grown thinner," he resumed, 
 " and I am not surprised that it is so. You 
 go to bed at indecently late hours and get up 
 at indecently early ones. You must go to Del
 
 222 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 Monte with Penelope, or would you prefer to 
 go over to the cottage in Ross Valley? " 
 
 " I am not going to Ross Valley," she de- 
 clared, a sharp intonation of pain running 
 through her voice at the remembrance of the 
 preceding summer spent at the cottage ; nor 
 am I going to Monterey without you. I can 
 afford to lose a little flesh. I used to term 
 myself plump, but probably my enemies called 
 me ' fat.' Is not that an abominable word? " 
 
 In her Sittings in and out of the house at all 
 hours, Penelope surprised Loys at times, as 
 she lay extended on the couch, neither sleep- 
 ing nor working nor reading. 
 
 "You have grown shockingly lazy," she ad- 
 monished. " How can you lie idle when there 
 is all your new table linen to embroider? You 
 do not take enough interest in yourself. Bishop 
 Yorke asked me the other day if one had to 
 be disabled in order to arouse your interest. 
 It is all very well to help the poor, but you 
 need not give up your whole life to them. Why 
 don't you spur on your jaded Pegasus to re- 
 newed flights? " 
 
 " I sent off the manuscript of my novel only 
 a week ago. Do you wish me to turn out a 
 story a day? "
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 223 
 
 "I do not know. Perhaps I am in a fault- 
 finding mood, but lately you have not seemed 
 so bright " 
 
 " And this after last night," opposed Loys, 
 " when I imagined myself the light and soul of 
 the party ; when I strewed before you my choic- 
 est pearls of thought, my favorite anecdotes. 
 Ah, this is an ungrateful world ! No, Pen, I 
 shall confess. You have merely grown too well 
 acquainted with me. I used to have the knack 
 of putting the witticisms of others into my own 
 chafing-dish and serving them up before the 
 same public in such disguised form that they 
 were unrecognizable ; but I suppose that with 
 old age the vein has become exhausted." 
 
 " Go to Monterey with us, and mingle with 
 the brainless mob for a time," pleaded Penelope. 
 
 But her entreaties were unavailing, and she 
 and Mrs. Luttrell were forced to go alone. 
 Loys breathed a sigh of relief at their departure. 
 She felt that she could now do as she liked 
 without any kindly inquisitive eyes upon her. 
 
 She gave herself up to long days on the 
 couch, when she did nothing but brood over 
 her troubles and vivisect her own emotions; 
 but Kendall knew nothing of her mood, for at 
 night she was always ready to amuse him. She
 
 224 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 shrank in horror from her own thoughts, that 
 they were only natural made them none the 
 more excusable. To be so tired that she could 
 not think ! and she filled her days so full of 
 duties that she overtaxed her strength. 
 
 Penelope, however, was away little more than 
 a fortnight, every day of which she sent Loys 
 a long letter, for which the society papers would 
 gladly have paid any price. She was a master- 
 hand at ridicule, and wrote with a pointed pen 
 which spared no one. Yorke went down to 
 see her one afternoon, and the following day 
 she returned home. 
 
 Between them they frightened Loys into a 
 submissive silence, and took her out for long 
 drives, and tours of discovery about the bay 
 and the adjoining country. She affected an 
 interest in everything, but was unsuccessful in 
 her efforts to impose upon them. They were 
 aware she would have been thankful to have 
 been left to herself. 
 
 But Kendall thought he had never seen her 
 looking better than the night of the Townsend 
 wedding reception. Although late in July, every 
 one had made it a point, if possible, to return 
 from their summer residences for the occasion. 
 
 Loys was with Whiting when they came
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 225 
 
 upon Van Arsdale with Laura Yorke upon his 
 arm. 
 
 "You both look surprised to see Mr. Van 
 Arsdale here. But we permitted him no voice 
 in the matter," said Laura, with a calm air of 
 proprietorship which irritated Loys. 
 
 "Have you missed me? " asked Van Arsdale 
 of Loys. 
 
 " San Rafael is not at the other side of the 
 globe," Loys returned. " If you had cared to 
 spare us chagrin, you would have contrived to 
 give us one evening in a whole month. At 
 first we spoke of your default, and threatened 
 to go after you, in a body. Now we no longer 
 speak of you. It is not because we have for- 
 gotten you, unfortunately we are not of the 
 forgetting " 
 
 " I am coming back to town. I shall return 
 to-mor " 
 
 " Indeed you shall not," broke in Laura. 
 " We cannot think of your deserting us in that 
 hurried fashion." 
 
 Loys looked at her in undefined fear. She 
 had never felt a match for Laura Yorke, and 
 she was now filled with unreasoning apprehen- 
 sion. She looked round for Penelope, who 
 she felt was clever enough to outwit Laura.
 
 226 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 "You will surely see Penelope," Loys said 
 to Van Arsdale, as they were swept apart. 
 
 A few moments later Yorke came to claim 
 her, and bore her away from Whiting. 
 
 " Will Townsend told me that supper is to 
 be served in another half- hour," he said, " and 
 he is going to have the men place a table on 
 the east veranda, for a select party. I shall 
 install you there, and then recruit our forces." 
 
 He found a comfortable corner for her on 
 the veranda, and, after she had assured him that 
 she was warm enough, he went away to gather 
 together the chosen spirits. 
 
 Loys contentedly lay back in her chair, en- 
 joying the balmy, flower-scented air, and the 
 prettiness of the scene before her. She started 
 as she suddenly heard Laura Yorke and Van 
 Arsdale in the room behind her. Evidently 
 they were standing at the window, but were 
 unaware of her presence, as the high back of 
 her chair effectually concealed her. 
 
 " It would have been a pity to break in 
 upon Penelope's waltz," Laura was saying. 
 " How she does enter into the spirit of gayety ! 
 She does not look nor act as if she were more 
 than twenty, does she ? I tell her that some 
 day she will marry her English lord. His in-
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 227 
 
 fatuation was clearly shown when he was here, 
 and even Penelope can hardly look higher. 
 He seems to have every desirable quality." 
 
 Van Arsdale proffered no remark. At length 
 he said : " There she goes with Blair. Ah, well, 
 it does not matter. I shall see her to-morrow 
 night. I have trespassed upon your hospitality 
 too long as it is." 
 
 " You cannot mean to leave us, when we all 
 want you so much," Laura exclaimed, with a 
 loss of self-possession utterly foreign to her, 
 " and when no one has a right to demand your 
 return to town. We shall miss you," she con- 
 tinued, laying her hand on his arm. 
 
 Loys hardly dared to breathe. She was con- 
 scious that she ought to do something, but she 
 could not determine what. 
 
 Van Arsdale stood looking down at the girl's 
 gloved hand upon his arm. Her eyes were 
 raised to him. They were swimming in tears. 
 He felt that something was demanded of him, 
 but he made no movement. 
 
 " Have we bored you? " Laura pursued, then 
 turned away her head, to hide the tears which 
 rolled down her cheeks. 
 
 The man, feeling himself a brute, hesitatingly 
 made a step forward. He could no longer
 
 228 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 thrust from him the thought which had threat- 
 ened to intrude itself upon him once or twice 
 before. 
 
 " Laura ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 "Do not look at me," she entreated, crouch- 
 ing down upon the window-seat. " Oh, I am 
 so ashamed ! Take me home." 
 
 "Don't," he protested. "Don't cry. Do 
 you think you love me enough to be my wife ? 
 You must not forget my age Come away. 
 They are going out upon the veranda." 
 
 "It was too cold for you here without a 
 wrap," said Yorke to Loys. "You look as 
 chill as a moonbeam." 
 
 She looked up at him in mute appeal. 
 
 He bent forward to shield her from the eyes 
 of the others, saying, " What is it ? Are you 
 quite well? " 
 
 " Yes, but Ah, you cannot help me. Let 
 us be gay, gay as all the rest of the world is in 
 appearance to-night." 
 
 " Tell me," he entreated. " No one is lis- 
 tening. You can tell me safely." 
 
 He looked so powerful, so capable of setting 
 right what was so plainly wrong, that she half 
 swayed toward him. 
 
 " This will never do," called Whiting. " Look
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 229 
 
 here, Yorke, we expect you and Mrs. Kendall 
 to help us with this array of bottles. Don't 
 you intend to eat or drink?" 
 
 Van Arsdale came out upon the veranda as 
 Penelope and Whiting were engaged in a 
 war of words which had stopped all other 
 conversation. 
 
 Loys regarded him half in anger, half in 
 pity. He had taken the one course seemingly 
 open to him : it would have required a man 
 with a more resourceful brain than he possessed 
 to have extricated himself uncommitted from 
 the recent encounter. Despite her generous 
 scorn of Laura, Loys was forced to bestow a 
 certain amount of unwilling admiration upon 
 the adroitness with which she had gained the 
 man she loved. 
 
 As some retort of Penelope's provoked the 
 laughter of those about her, a quiver of pain 
 stirred Van Arsdale's face. 
 
 "You forgot to laugh," he said to Loys. "I 
 thought you and Penelope had a pact to laugh 
 at each other's wit." 
 
 " I never can enter properly into the gayety 
 of a crowd," she returned. 
 
 "When I left Mrs. Kendall here before 
 supper, she was thoughtlessly gay," put in
 
 230 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 Yorke. " When I returned five minutes later, 
 I found her as you now see her." 
 
 Van Arsdale gazed at her with unwonted 
 keenness. It seemed to her that his eyes de- 
 manded why she had not interceded to save 
 him. With maddening after-wisdom, she saw 
 how easily she might have frustrated Laura's 
 cunning. 
 
 Then she arose, saying petulantly, " I am 
 chilled. Let us go in." 
 
 "You have remained motionless too long," 
 remarked Yorke. " Will you give me this 
 dance?" 
 
 She laid her hand on his arm as Penelope 
 came up to them. 
 
 " Will you be very much disappointed, Loys, 
 if I deprive you of your waltz ? I wish to go 
 home. I have a headache ; would you call it 
 an aching void?" 
 
 " Wait five minutes," urged Yorke. " Now 
 that Mrs. Kendall has promised me this waltz, 
 I intend to " 
 
 " I am sorry, but Loys is going to take me 
 home now." 
 
 Loys studied her in inward questioning, won- 
 dering if some inkling of the truth had already 
 reached her.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 23! 
 
 "Yes, let us go," she agreed, nervously. 
 
 "After you have given me one little turn," 
 Yorke said, with sullen tenacity. The hauteur 
 of her face recalled him to himself. " I am 
 afraid I am in a hectoring mood to-night. But 
 I confess myself beaten, for here comes Ken- 
 dall himself." 
 
 Penelope's headache left no visible imprint 
 upon her spirits. She was in a bright, talkative 
 mood all the way home. 
 
 "You are not to kiss me like that again," 
 she commanded, with a wilful laugh, as Loys 
 kissed her good- night. " It was a kiss which 
 seemed to say you were sorry for me." 
 
 Loys passed the night in bitter perplexity, 
 and the daylight found her with no settled plan 
 of action. But when Kendall had gone to his 
 office, she ran across the lawn to Penelope's. 
 
 She was about to do a dishonorable act, but 
 she believed herself justified in it. She would 
 stop at nothing to save Penelope one pang. 
 Penelope was in her luxurious bath-room, the 
 one possession Loys really envied her. 
 
 "Is that you, Loys?" she called. "Draw 
 your chair to the door and we can talk com- 
 fortably. Whose reputation shall we first at- 
 tack? I woke up sleepy this morning, so I
 
 232 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 shall not be so amusing as ordinarily. By the 
 way, did Riker Van Arsdale speak to you last 
 evening? He never so much as came near 
 me." 
 
 " I appeared in the role of eavesdropper last 
 night," commenced Loys, glad of the closed 
 door between them, " and I am going to 
 make you share my guilt by telling you what 
 I overheard." 
 
 "Wait a moment. I shall enjoy it more 
 thoroughly if I see your face, and I shall soon 
 be ready to throw on a. peignoir" 
 
 Her words hastened Loys. " Did you notice 
 anything unusual between Laura Yorke and 
 Riker Van Arsdale?" 
 
 There was an almost imperceptible pause 
 before Penelope answered, " Well, they were 
 together nearly all the evening." 
 
 " And they have decided to be together for 
 the rest of their days," broke in Loys, helpless 
 to soften her words. 
 
 The connecting door opened, and Penelope 
 swept in. She was still flushed from her bath, 
 and her hair, which had been massed at the 
 top of her head in a great knot, had loosened 
 itself from the one shell pin which held it, and 
 waved softly about her face. Her beauty hurt
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 233 
 
 Loys at that moment. It seemed only to add 
 to the bitter pathos of the whole affair. 
 
 " It was entirely unexpected on his part," 
 Loys resumed. " He did the one thing left 
 him to do, under the circumstances." 
 
 She briefly recounted what had happened. 
 
 Penelope listened without comment. At the 
 end, she said : " She really deserves him for her 
 cleverness. Possibly the plan might not have 
 been successful with every man, but only a 
 simpleton could doubt its success with him. 
 And so Riker is going to be married," she pro- 
 ceeded, musingly. " It will be hard to give 
 him up, for virtually it will be giving him up ; 
 his marriage cannot help but alter our relations. 
 Do you know, it makes one feel curiously old 
 to see all one's friends getting married. Laura 
 always did admire him." 
 
 " I must go home," murmured Loys, rising. 
 
 " Will you do me another favor ? I wish you 
 would go down town with me. There are sev- 
 eral birthday gifts which might just as well be 
 ordered to-day as later, and I suppose I ought 
 to send a silver porridge-bowl to that Taylor 
 baby." 
 
 Penelope usually affected the same severely 
 simple style on the street as did Loys, but that 
 morning she made an elaborate toilet.
 
 234 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 She went out of her way to be amiable to 
 people whose existence she usually blandly 
 ignored. 
 
 " Penelope, my dear, which of these two 
 lamps shall I take?" deferred Mrs. Hamilton, 
 whom they met in the art rooms of the White 
 House. " Presents are simply ruining me this 
 month. These ain't very handsome, I admit, 
 but they're the cheapest they have in the 
 place," confessed the old lady, in whose ears 
 glistened, from morning until night, diamonds 
 so large and brilliant that they successfully 
 blinded many to her awful delinquencies. She 
 had a fearless tongue, and a marvellous memory 
 for the personal history of early days, which 
 gained for her a degree of deferential respect 
 which was truly ludicrous. 
 
 " Do not spend too much money," cautioned 
 Penelope. " You know there is another wed- 
 ding whispered about." 
 
 "Whose?" 
 
 " Don't you know? Ah, well, it is not my 
 secret, but you will soon hear of it." 
 
 " I believe it 's your own, and it 's high time, 
 and it won't require much of a guess as to the 
 man," pursued the terrible old lady, peering at 
 Penelope in not unkind shrewdness. " If you
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 235 
 
 had married, you would n't look so young and 
 free from care, but it 's about time you settled 
 down. You 're my Maud's age, I know, though 
 no one would think it. But that is what it is 
 to have three children, and a husband with an 
 eye for the beautiful in other women. But I 
 sha n't send you a present. First of all, you 
 won't invite me, and you've made too much 
 fun of my presents." 
 
 " If I were to be married, I should certainly 
 invite you ; I wish one of your famous lamps, 
 and I never should have the courage to buy 
 one for myself," Penelope smiled. 
 
 A moment later the old lady's laughter re- 
 sounded through the apartment. 
 
 Nothing was demanded of Loys that morning. 
 Penelope smiled and talked for both ; but Loys 
 was exhausted when she reached home. 
 
 " Was there ever any one as stupid as my- 
 self? " she appealed. " If I had only made 
 my presence known when L&ura began to speak 
 of Penelope, I could have prevented what fol- 
 lowed. And I meant Penelope to be happy," 
 she continued, in fierce impatience. " Do I 
 dare ? " she asked, as a sudden thought came 
 to her. " Yes, I dare do anything for Penelope. 
 She shall be happy."
 
 236 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 Forgetting all about luncheon, she went into 
 town again. Her courage failed her as she 
 stepped from the elevator in the Mills Build- 
 ing, and found herself before Yorke's door. As 
 she stood hesitating, Yorke himself opened the 
 door. There was a gleam of astonishment at 
 sight of her, which he quickly subdued. 
 
 " I have come upon a daring errand," she 
 finally commenced. " I am going to tell you 
 what I tried to say last night. I have always 
 thought that Mr. Van Arsdale cared for Pene- 
 lope, but felt that she was worthy of more 
 love than he could give her, have not you? " 
 
 " This is too hard for you," Yorke exclaimed. 
 " Let me finish. When I left you on the ver- 
 anda last night, you overheard what took place 
 between Laura and Van Arsdale. Before she 
 retired her better self was again in the ascen- 
 dant. She has written him, saying he must 
 not endeavor to see her, and asking him to 
 forget what occurred. My mother and Laura 
 start for New York to-morrow." 
 
 It was not an easy position for either of them, 
 and Loys looked down upon the carpet to hide 
 her tears. Yorke walked to the window. 
 
 " Do not blame her too much," he urged, 
 coming back. " Her excuse is that she has
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 237 
 
 given him her best love. As soon as he re- 
 ceived her note, he went to the house; but 
 Laura refused to see him, and he came to me. 
 He accused me of having prompted the letter, 
 but I succeeded in convincing him I had had 
 nothing to do with it. I also told him a truth 
 or two. I think Penelope is going to be 
 happy." 
 
 Loys impulsively took his hand. " I am so 
 happy, so happy," she breathed, with a tremu- 
 lous little smile. 
 
 Yorke's face set in an expression of grim 
 determination. He thought she would never 
 rise to go. 
 
 " I have undertaken too much," he decided. 
 " If she does not soon go, I shall forget every- 
 thing but that I love her." 
 
 Still unaware of her peril, Loys left him. 
 
 She had been gone but a few moments when 
 Kendall came in. 
 
 " I met my wife do\^istairs," he said. 
 " She told me I must not inquire what her 
 errand with you was. I am here about that 
 Marsh lease. But, first of all, I want to know 
 if you think Loys looking well. Haswell wishes 
 me to send her away, but I cannot leave now, 
 and I cannot bear the thought of being with-
 
 238 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 out her, even for a week or two. She insists 
 that she is perfectly well, and she certainly has 
 not been in bed a day since her illness last 
 September. A stranger can tell better how she 
 looks than one who sees her every day." 
 
 " Does Mrs. Kendall wish to go away ? " 
 Yorke asked, shifting a paper-weight from one 
 side of the desk to the other. 
 
 " No, she does not," Kendall replied, tri- 
 umphantly. " In fact, she absolutely refuses to 
 go. She used to fret a great deal more than 
 she now does. Formerly she could not enjoy 
 her day's bread without seeing to-morrow's 
 (already buttered) in sight, forgetting it would 
 do her no good to save her bread until it was 
 stale. She lives more in the present now." 
 
 While Yorke listened, he was thankful that 
 his moment of madness had been short-lived. 
 He was divided between pity and contempt for 
 Gregory Kendall, yet he was glad that the man 
 saw nothing of the effort through which Loys 
 always appeared bright and well. It was little 
 surprising that she endeavored to live in the 
 present. She was wise to close her eyes to the 
 future, but Yorke doubted her success in keep- 
 ing them closed. 
 
 He shrank from the thought of the life of
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 239 
 
 exhausting effort which stretched before her, 
 and he drew a sharper breath as he saw how 
 narrowly he had escaped darkening it for her. 
 
 " If I ever cause her a moment's pain, I 
 shall be the blackest scoundrel who ever lived," 
 Yorke declared, when Kendall had gone. " A 
 woman is satisfied with so little ! and as my 
 friendship contents her, there is no harm in 
 continuing to see her. She knows how much 
 Kendall needs her, and separation from him 
 has never occurred to her. She is utterly 
 beyond me, and to speak would be to " 
 
 His heart failed him at the utter hopeless- 
 ness of it all. He buried his face in his hands, 
 murmuring, " Loys, Loys, my love ! " 
 
 But his cry did not awaken him to the great 
 need there was that their attempt at friendship 
 should cease.
 
 Chapter XVIII. 
 * 
 
 JHAT same afternoon Penelope was in 
 the garden in the rear of the house 
 when the man brought her a card. 
 
 " I shall receive Mr. Van Arsdale here, 
 Wilson." 
 
 " Even if you come only once a month, you 
 must not expect to be treated with ceremony," 
 she called, as Van Arsdale came up the path. 
 " We are looking old and jaded, Mr. Van 
 Arsdale," she continued, courtesying. "We 
 cannot stand late hours, Mr. Van Arsdale. 
 We should gracefully retire, Mr. Van Arsdale. 
 We are growing sadly old, Mr. Van Arsdale." 
 
 But she did not look old, as she stood before 
 him in a sheer white gown of some wash 
 material, and the amber light of the setting sun 
 came drifting through the foliage of the huge 
 palm-tree behind her, and lost itself in the 
 depth of her eyes. 
 
 "Do you know," she cried, changing color 
 under his steady eyes, " you look as though you
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 241 
 
 had come to tell me some great news, some 
 secret." 
 
 " So I have." 
 
 " I am so glad ! I am hungering for a sen- 
 sation. I wrote letters all the afternoon, and, 
 for once, they were dull letters. San Francisco 
 is such a stupidly proper place. None of 
 one's friends ever obligingly gives us cause 
 for gossip. And now for your news. 
 
 " How slow you are ! " she went on indefati- 
 gably, seating herself on a rustic bench, while 
 he sat above her, watching her as she lightly 
 touched the queen pansies she had been gather- 
 ing, in their quaint garb of royal purple. " You 
 really must commence, for I shall have to dress 
 for dinner soon, and I cannot ask you to stay 
 to-night." 
 
 "Can't you? " he questioned, blankly. 
 
 " No. But where is your story ? You have 
 gotten out of practice. I remember you used 
 to tell nice ones in the days when I was a little 
 girl and you held me upon your knee." ' 
 
 " I never did hold you on my knee," he 
 rebelled. " To hear you, one would imagine I 
 was old enough to be your grandfather. It is 
 true, I am past forty, but you " 
 
 " I shall be twenty-eight in two months," she 
 16
 
 242 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 supplied. "But we are not going to discuss 
 ages. I am impatiently waiting for the story." 
 
 " Once upon a time," he began, tracing a 
 capital " P " in the gravel with his stick, " there 
 was a man, old and ugly and morose, who 
 dared to raise his eyes to a woman who was as 
 far above him as the stars. He did not blind 
 himself to the difference in their age, to her 
 beauty, and her " 
 
 " You must not think of that," she broke in, 
 " I am sure it never occurs to her." 
 
 "Are you?" he asked, eagerly, taking her 
 passive hand into his. " I never knew my 
 great need for you, Pen, until last night, when 
 you seemed to vanish from me. What is the 
 matter, love ? " 
 
 She had laid her head upon his knee, but the 
 one glimpse of her face dissipated all the doubt 
 of her love he had entertained. 
 
 " Pen, do you love me despite my years and 
 my settled ways? Do you know what people 
 will say? I have no right to let you do it. 
 Are you sure you will be happy with me and 
 the little I have to give you?" 
 
 She raised her face with sudden passion. 
 
 " I must speak now ; I have been silent so 
 long. I know you cannot give me your best
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 243 
 
 love, but I shall be content with little. I 
 realize what people will say ; I have said it all 
 to myself many times in the effort to displace 
 you from my heart. 5ut I cannot love any 
 one else but you. If you will only let me be 
 with you, I shall be the happiest woman in the 
 world." 
 
 He bent down to her as she rested against 
 his knee, a great flood of tenderness filling his 
 heart. The love he could give her seemed so 
 pitifully small next to that which she lavished 
 upon him. He drew her head to his breast. 
 
 " Even if you are asking me only in pity," 
 she faltered, stealing her arm about his neck, 
 " I am happy." 
 
 Her words cut him to the quick. There 
 was a dull pain in his heart as he thought of 
 the woman to whose memory he had been un- 
 true, and then he banished it. 
 
 " I am old, Pen, and there is nothing in my 
 life hidden from you, yet if you knew the bitter 
 pain I suffered last night because of ydu, you 
 would not question my love." 
 
 " Why because of me ? " 
 
 " Why Why, because you went to supper 
 with Blair, instead of with me," he finished, 
 lamely.
 
 244 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 " How could I go with you when you did 
 not even ask me?" she demanded, with a 
 dazzling smile. 
 
 " Mrs. Yorke and Laura are going East to- 
 morrow," he volunteered, pressing her closer 
 to him. " Pen, can't you persuade Mrs. Ken- 
 dall to go away for a while?" he continued. 
 "Don't you realize how ill she is looking? 
 By the way, do you know why she went to 
 Yorke's office to-day?" 
 
 " Yes, I do," she returned, feeling positive she 
 now knew to whom she owed her happiness. 
 
 " Don't you think she would be better away 
 from here for a time? " 
 
 Their eyes met in a long glance of under- 
 standing, and her lips quivered. 
 
 "She will not leave Gregory now. I think 
 she fears she may not be strong enough to 
 return to him. There is nothing to dread. 
 She will go on to the end without a falter. 
 I am going to tell you some something I 
 know I should keep to myself, but Do 
 you know what her life is? The other day 
 after Gregory had kissed her, I saw her shud- 
 der. She mistakes his slightest moment of 
 thoughtfulness for melancholy, and I heard her 
 say to Dr. Haswell, ' You must give me some-
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 245 
 
 thing to make me sleep, or I believe I shall 
 lose my reason.' Is she right to go on living 
 with him ? Surely she has a right to happiness, 
 too. Oh, how is it going to end? " 
 
 " Do not cry," he begged, smoothing her 
 hair. " Yorke must go away." 
 
 " He must not go away. He is the one 
 gleam of happiness in her life. After she has 
 seen him, she is more as she used to be. 
 Neither of them is irresponsible or careless of 
 his own self-respect. We are insulting her," 
 she broke off. " Let me go to dress for dinner 
 now." 
 
 " You could not put on anything more be- 
 coming. I do not have to go away, as you at 
 first said, do I, dear? " 
 
 " No. I thought you were going to tell me 
 At least, I did not think you intended to 
 stay, so I made believe I did not want you." 
 
 " And you will give me the next few days, 
 will you not, Pen?" 
 
 " I cannot," she deplored. " Mr. Bedell 
 and his sister arrived to-day, and I asked them 
 to go to Ross Valley, to stay until Monday." 
 
 His look of disappointment delighted her. 
 
 " On Sunday I shall invite you and Bishop, 
 Loys and Gregory, and Mr. Browne, over for 
 a picnic. Will not that be lovely? "
 
 346 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 " Is that what you call ' lovely ' ? No, it 
 will not be ' lovely ' at all," he protested. " I 
 am like Mrs. Kendall in my objection to crowds. 
 I shall not have a moment alone with you, I 
 know." 
 
 "Of course you will not, if you are not 
 clever. But perhaps if you exercised a little 
 wit, and I went half-way to meet you 
 
 He leaned down, and, as it had grown dusk, 
 he found the courage to go more than half- 
 way to meet her lips.
 
 Chapter XIX. 
 
 j[S Penelope went over to Ross Valley on 
 the following day, only the Kendalls 
 and Yorke were told of the engagement. Loys 
 found it impossible to refuse Penelope anything 
 at the moment, and promised that she and 
 Gregory would make one of the picnic-party on 
 Sunday. 
 
 Penelope and her guests met them at the 
 station with a tally-ho coach, and they at once 
 set out. Kendall was at first inclined to deride 
 the idea of a long drive, saying he would prefer 
 to picnic in Penelope's own spacious grounds, 
 or in Schaefer's Grove ; but when they were 
 fairly started, he made no further objections, 
 for Miss Bedell divided her attentions, with 
 impartial favor, between him and Douglas 
 Browne, who had been invited for her special 
 benefit. 
 
 At one o'clock they drove into the shadow of 
 a great clump of trees, at the foot of which 
 ran a little brook, and the luncheon was un-
 
 248 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 packed. Loys put the graceful ferns Yorke 
 had cut in the middle of the table-cloth, and 
 piled upon them the luscious fruits, arranging 
 everything with the daintiness which marked 
 her. 
 
 They were ravenously hungry, but Penelope 
 insisted that Yorke was using his skill at sleight- 
 of-hand in disposing of his food. 
 
 "Who will reach me that freckled egg?" 
 Yorke asked, lazily, entirely unabashed by their 
 remarks. " You make me ashamed of my 
 appetite, Mrs. Kendall. You have been hold- 
 ing that sandwich for the last five minutes." 
 
 Loys started guiltily. 
 
 " Perhaps Mrs. Kendall is wiser than I, and 
 dreads dyspepsia," suggested Miss Bedell. 
 
 " I have always enjoyed most vulgar health ; 
 I am never conscious of my infernal, I mean 
 my internal, machinery," Loys asserted. 
 
 " There is a box of candy somewhere about," 
 said Penelope. " Some one please search for 
 it. Mrs. Kendall is never happy unless eating 
 sweets." 
 
 " That is all a thing of the past," commented 
 Kendall. " I brought a box of candy home on 
 Friday night, and it is still untouched." 
 
 "I am getting past the chocolate-cream
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 249 
 
 stage ; even marrons cease to tempt me. Oh, 
 I realize I am getting to a very certain age," 
 sighed Loys, whimsically, listening to the car- 
 ollings of some wood-thrtash in the still deeps 
 behind them. 
 
 When luncheon was a thing of the past, they 
 lay lazily about. Mrs. Luttrell, however, had 
 had the forethought to bring a sofa-cushion for 
 Loys, who was exceedingly uncomfortable if 
 she found her head on a level with her feet. 
 
 Yorke and Kendall and Penelope formed 
 themselves into a trio, and sang some sacred 
 music, which fell with fine effect on the curious 
 dense quiet which reigned. They were very 
 silent when the voices died away. 
 
 " If services were conducted in the open air, 
 we would not be given a jeweller's shop as an 
 idea of heaven," Penelope suddenly said. 
 
 " We all make our own God. The more 
 spiritual we are, the more spiritually we con- 
 ceive the Father of the Universe," remarked 
 Loys. 
 
 " Oh, look here, you agnostics, or pantheists, 
 or whatever you are, I shall leave you if you 
 begin to discuss religious matters," Kendall 
 avowed. " Are you a bit the happier for dis- 
 believing what you were taught to believe when
 
 250 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 you were children?" He never questioned 
 certain subjects. "Well, I am glad I still 
 believe in the old-fashioned heaven." 
 
 " ' Heav'n but the vision of fulfill'd desire.' 
 But the believers and the unbelievers are all 
 more concerned in laying the corner-stones of 
 their earthly mansions than for those they hope 
 to occupy beyond the skies," said Yorke. " It 
 is not so comfortable a creed, but we know we 
 are independent agents, not puppets, whose 
 acts must be our own saviour. But as Carlyle 
 said, ' Not our logical mensurative faculty, but 
 our imaginative one, is king over us.' " 
 
 "And what are Mrs. Kendall's views?" 
 queried Bedell, raising himself to look at her. 
 " She has fallen asleep," he announced, in a 
 whisper, in the tone of one making a wonder- 
 ful discovery. 
 
 " Do not stop talking now," cautioned Yorke, 
 " or the sudden quiet will waken her." 
 
 " I have been sitting so long that my legs 
 are dizzy," Penelope laughed. " Who wishes 
 to go for a walk? " 
 
 With the exception of Kendall, who preferred 
 to remain with Loys, and Yorke, who had to 
 care for the horses, the whole party professed 
 their readiness to go.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 251 
 
 They started out on their tramp, and Yorke 
 went away to feed and water the horses. 
 When he returned a while later, Kendall was 
 sitting beside Loys, ready to brush from her 
 the mosquitoes and flies. 
 
 Yorke threw himself down at some distance, 
 but he could see the exquisite care Kendall 
 took of his wife. 
 
 After a time Yorke went off for a lonely 
 walk. When he returned, he found Kendall 
 still patiently watching. 
 
 " She has not wakened once," Kendall whis- 
 pered, happily, looking up at Yorke's approach, 
 " and she has been having happy dreams, for 
 she has been smiling." 
 
 Loys stirred, then opened her eyes. She 
 was wide awake on the instant. 
 
 " How long have I been asleep ? I suppose 
 I should be ashamed of myself, but I am not. 
 I feel like another person." 
 
 It was after five when they reached the cot- 
 tage and sat down to dine. Penelope tried to 
 prevail upon them to remain over-night, but only 
 succeeded in inducing Mr. Browne to do so. 
 
 After dinner Loys lay in the hammock on 
 the veranda. The others surrounded her, but 
 she did not enter into their merry talk. She
 
 252 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 was aware that Van Arsdale was speaking a 
 great deal, and she appreciated the effort he 
 was making to create a favorable impression 
 upon Penelope's friends. She did not doubt 
 the happiness of Penelope's future, the world 
 might believe that her years of waiting were 
 not justified in him, but the thought would 
 never occur to Penelope, who had always freely 
 given more than she could ever hope to receive. 
 
 The warm, sweet-scented night-air recalled 
 to Loys those peaceful evenings Penelope and 
 she had spent at the cottage the summer before. 
 She now looked back upon those months as 
 the happiest she had ever known. The future 
 had stretched bright before her, and now 
 
 She would not think, when thinking could 
 lead only to madness. Why, she demanded, 
 impatiently, why could she not deceive herself 
 as well as others? Kendall's laugh broke on 
 the air, and she wondered angrily why she 
 could not also adopt his brazen indifference 
 to consequences. A second later she was 
 conscious of her own inconsistency. She was 
 thankful that he was not haunted by any 
 thought of the sword suspended above him. 
 In his oblivion lay his safety. If his days were 
 poisoned as hers by the ever-living fear
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 253 
 
 The laughter of the others reached her, and 
 she wished she could be as easily moved to 
 laughter again. And yet she was young ; she 
 was not yet twenty-seven, almost a year 
 younger than Penelope. And she might live 
 to be fifty or more. 
 
 " Get up, lazy one," commanded Penelope. 
 " Since you persist in going, it is time you 
 prepared." 
 
 The train was almost empty. Opposite them 
 sat a husband and wife, with a child of some 
 four or five years of age. The child was frac- 
 tious from sleepiness, and when the mother 
 refused to allow her to hold her head out of 
 the window, the little one set her teeth and 
 began to scream. 
 
 "You are to stop that this moment," ordered 
 the mother, shaking the child angrily to and 
 fro. " I '11 teach you to show such a temper." 
 
 Moved as she was to pity the baby, Loys her- 
 self could hardly restrain a smile at the ludi- 
 crousness of the scene. 
 
 " I am surprised that you do not offer to 
 soothe the child for her," mocked Kendall, in 
 French. 
 
 " I do not like children, promiscuously," Loys 
 replied, simply. "They must be sweet and
 
 254 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 clean, or pretty, or clever. Poor little thing," 
 she added, as the mother continued to scold. 
 
 She was glad to escape the child when they 
 went on the ferry. Kendall stood on the deck 
 after the others were seated. 
 
 " Come for a walk, Van Arsdale," he urged. 
 " I have not fairly stretched my legs to-day, 
 and I might as well lay the status of that San 
 Jose" matter before you now." 
 
 They lighted their cigars and started off, 
 leaving Loys and Yorke together. 
 
 In the cabin a harpist and violinist were 
 strumming out the popular music of the day. 
 
 " How do you contrive to get along without 
 the song of 'the girl next door'?" asked 
 Yorke. 
 
 " Did you not know that they rented the 
 house on the other side of us? I thought you 
 knew, for Penelope made quite a jest of it. 
 They did not own the other property, so there 
 was no need for them to wait until it was re- 
 built. When they took the house adjoining 
 our present location it seemed as if we could 
 not escape the song. But I am glad that we 
 shall miss it soon ; we are to return to our own 
 house in a short while now. Do you know, the 
 song has grown sadder than ever."
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 255 
 
 The musicians had wandered into " Mignon," 
 and Yorke began to hum, " Connais-tu le pays," 
 but the words faded away on his lips, and he 
 looked over the motionless, moon-lit waters, 
 all the unrest of the day dying out under the 
 calm beauty of the night. 
 
 The boat seemed to be scarcely moving 
 through the silvered waters, in which the stars 
 were mirrored, and even the wheezing of the 
 violin could not drown the beauty of the music. 
 
 Yorke was facing Loys, who had half- turned 
 to look back over the bay. As the last note 
 died away, their eyes met, and their hearts 
 were laid bare to each other. Her breath 
 quickened, but she made no attempt to escape 
 the warmth of his gaze. He bent his head. 
 His lips had already framed themselves into 
 the word ' Loys,' when Van Arsdale's voice 
 broke harshly upon the air. 
 
 "Do you wish to be left here all night?" 
 he demanded, standing at some little distance 
 from them. "We have landed." 
 
 "You are almost asleep, Loys," laughed 
 Kendall, taking her arm. 
 
 She stood up, looking about her vaguely. 
 An instant later she studied Van Arsdale in 
 breathless suspense. He had noted nothing :
 
 256 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 his face was as blank and expressionless as 
 ever. 
 
 Yorke said good-night at the wharf, but Van 
 Arsdale accompanied them to the cars, where 
 he also left them. 
 
 Kendall and Loys sat on the dummy. 
 
 " You are going to sleep well to-night," he 
 said. " This day in the open air has done you 
 a world of good. Next Friday we shall go to 
 Del Monte, and we shall see if there is not 
 some one there who can induce you to remain 
 a week or two." 
 
 " Gregory, can you not leave now ? We 
 would go away, just you and I, on a sea-trip 
 to Alaska or Honolulu." 
 
 " It is impossible," he decided. " I wish I 
 could, dearest, for I feel you need the change ; 
 but it is altogether impossible for me to go 
 now." 
 
 " It is not impossible," she protested, with 
 almost hysterical insistence. " Nothing is im- 
 possible. I do not make many requests, so 
 you should not refuse me this one. Take me 
 away," she continued, in the suasive tones she 
 could so well employ. " You will find me the 
 merriest companion. You will see how changed 
 I shall be as soon as we are away from here. 
 Will you not take me away? "
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 257 
 
 Kendall did, indeed, find it difficult to refuse 
 her. She was irresistible as she leaned lightly 
 forward, her dark eyes pleading for her with all 
 their practised skill. 
 
 " You make me feel myself a brute," he said, 
 " for I cannot get away now. My darling, do 
 you not see how hard it is for me to refuse 
 you? Do you not know what those weeks 
 would be to me? Here I have to divide you 
 with so many. I never seem to have a moment 
 with you alone. But you who are always so 
 reasonable, you must see that it is out of the 
 question for me to leave now." 
 
 " Mother is coming to town to-morrow. I 
 may go home with her." 
 
 His eyes widened in surprise. Since her 
 marriage she had gone to the farm only four 
 or five times, and then for but brief stays. 
 She had grown more tolerant of her father's 
 intolerance, but she was always glad to escape 
 from the narrowness of the farm life. Her 
 father had made her several visits of short 
 duration. He was proud of her success, and 
 pleased her by his rough praise, but he was un- 
 comfortable away from the routine of the farm. 
 
 "You will stay only two or three days," 
 Kendall hazarded. " Even if not before, I 
 17
 
 258 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 think I can leave in November, and then we 
 shall go to the Islands, or even Japan, if you 
 wish." 
 
 " November is a long way off, almost four 
 months. What cannot happen in four months ! 
 Who knows ? I may have taken the ' leap into 
 obscurity.' " 
 
 " I wish you would stop that senseless talk," 
 he said, harshly. " One would think you took 
 pleasure in the thought of death." 
 
 She did not answer. She remembered that 
 long ago, before their marriage, she had once 
 told him that death, to her, seemed a promise 
 of peace. To-night she knew it to be the only 
 peace she would ever gain. She stretched out 
 her hands to it in passionate longing. She 
 would lie at rest, all her fetters fallen from her, 
 free from the feeling of miserable shame which 
 now enveloped her. What a blessed relief it 
 would be no longer to have to pretend to be 
 happy when her heart was heavy with its own 
 shame, when 
 
 "Come, Loys," Kendall's voice broke in. 
 "Here we are at our own door."
 
 Chapter XX. 
 
 |ORKE waited as Van Arsdale paused in 
 the shelter of a doorway to light the 
 cigar, which, in the warmth of his conversation, 
 he had permitted to die out. 
 
 " And so," Van Arsdale proceeded, after a 
 luxurious moment of communion with his cigar, 
 " and so, if I were you, I should not wait until 
 September to go on. Mclvors is well able to 
 manage your affairs : he is a man of fine execu- 
 tive ability and thoroughly reliable. Why not 
 go to New York this month, and then continue 
 on to England? San Francisco is very well for 
 a man of affairs, and a very Paradise for people 
 of limited means ; but, after all, one merely 
 exists here. You miss the atmosphere to which 
 you have been accustomed, and that last 
 article of yours shows it." 
 
 Yorke smiled grimly. " It so happened that 
 it was written in Paris." 
 
 "Is it possible ?" Van Arsdale queried, not 
 at all disconcerted. " Well, I suppose you will
 
 260 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 start for New York, then, some time next 
 week." 
 
 " I do not know when I shall go," Yorke 
 returned, coldly. He suddenly realized that it 
 was time he left if Van Arsdale could bring 
 himself to prompt the step. 
 
 Van Arsdale ventured no further remark. He 
 threw away his cigar, pausing before the Ken- 
 dalls' door. 
 
 " Penelope is with Mrs. Kendall and Mrs. 
 Yerrington. Kendall is at San Jose 1 , trying that 
 suit. Coming in with me ? " 
 
 Yorke rapidly decided to enter. It was two 
 days since they had parted at the wharf, and he 
 recognized that it would be well to have their 
 meeting take place before others. 
 
 " I am not glad to see you, for I know you 
 have come to take Penelope away," Loys said 
 to Van Arsdale. " And you," she went on to 
 Yorke, " you have come to see my mother, not 
 me." 
 
 "We have been speaking of Trent's good- 
 fortune," Penelope observed, after a time. 
 " How much easier it would have been for him 
 had he only been granted a peep into the 
 future ! It is much easier to keep up one's 
 courage in the struggle if only assured of ulti- 
 mate success."
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 261 
 
 " Perhaps he did consult a clairvoyant," sug- 
 gested Van Arsdale, gravely. " I have heard 
 that you go to certain mediums, and they 
 liberally give you a number in the lottery which 
 will certainly bring you the capital prize, yet 
 they themselves are content to abide in deso- 
 late poverty. Just as the ' beauty doctors ' 
 promise you women wondrous beauty if you 
 only entrust yourselves to their hands, yet neg- 
 lect to beautify themselves." 
 
 " You will not mock at clairvoyancy when 
 you hear Mrs. Kendall's experience," warned 
 Penelope. " Loys, tell them what Mrs. Wills 
 told you, at least as much as you told me." 
 
 " You did not go to a fortune-teller, did 
 you?" demanded Mrs. Yerrington, fearfully. 
 " Oh, I am sorry you went. It always seems to 
 me that one gets punished for trying to know." 
 
 " So I did ; I am sorry I did gratify my un- 
 holy curiosity," Loys granted, a furrow of pain 
 crossing her brow. " It was rather a peculiar ex- 
 perience, my visit to Mrs. Wills. I first heard 
 of her through two of the girls at the school, 
 who were planning to go to see her. Of course, 
 I prevented their going, but I went in their stead. 
 She made no pretension to being a spiritualistic 
 medium; she merely professed to have culti-
 
 262 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 vated her powers of insight. I went to her 
 that day filled with one thought ; but almost as 
 soon as she took my hands in hers she told me 
 that I had two sisters, both younger than myself, 
 and she also foretold Laura's marriage in De- 
 cember, which took place." 
 
 " That might be reasonably accounted for 
 under the head of mind or muscle reading," 
 remarked Yorke. 
 
 " But I was not thinking of my sisters," Loys 
 objected. " As usual, I was thinking of myself." 
 
 " Still, they might unconsciously have been 
 in your mind." 
 
 " Perhaps. She also told me your name, 
 mother." 
 
 Although Van Arsdale had scoffed at the 
 whole idea, he listened with unwaning interest, 
 as did Yorke ; but Mrs. Yerrington hung upon 
 Loys's words with breathless impatience. 
 
 " Then she told me my occupation. I have 
 often tried to account for that on the pre- 
 sumption that she was a sort of female Sher- 
 lock Holmes, but I was exceedingly well- 
 gowned that day ; I had no blot of ink on my 
 hands, nor did my face wear the worried ex- 
 pression a teacher's is supposed to have. She 
 also knew that I had written a book, but said
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 263 
 
 I was too young at the time of writing it. She 
 predicted success for me if I wrote another, yet 
 advised me not to use my eyes at night. I 
 began to work on the story at night, and my 
 eyes rebelled. Of course I cannot tell you all 
 that she foresaw, but it was astoundingly true." 
 
 They dared not question her further, although 
 stirred by a violent desire to know how far she 
 had been warned of the future in store for her. 
 
 " If you are expecting those people, Penelope, 
 it is time you went home," prompted Van 
 Arsdale. 
 
 "Is that clock right? I am sure they are 
 there already. I would much rather stay here than 
 entertain them," Penelope confessed, hospitably. 
 
 When Loys returned to the room, after see- 
 ing Penelope and Van Arsdale to the door, she 
 found that Yorke had risen to go. 
 
 " You made a grave mistake in relating your 
 experience before Mrs. Yerrington," he said. 
 " She is certain that you were told of some 
 trouble in store for you, and that the thought 
 of it is tormenting you." 
 
 " Really, mother ? I shall tell you two a 
 little secret. I did not mention it before be- 
 cause Mr. Van Arsdale's incredulity irritated 
 me. Mrs. Wills did make one or two mistakes.
 
 264 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 It is true she told me your name, mother, at 
 once, but she was extremely puzzled over 
 father's, although she finally gave it to me. 
 She closed her eyes, so," she went on, suiting 
 the action to her words, " and frowned, mur- 
 muring, ' Who is this man I see, whose name 
 begins with a J ? It is your father. J, J It 
 escapes me.' " 
 
 Loys slowly opened her eyes, and confronted 
 her mother, who had risen from her chair. 
 
 There was a deathly stillness as the two 
 women faced each other. Loys drew a dry, 
 gasping breath, and grasped the back of a 
 chair to steady herself. 
 
 " I must go," said Yorke. " Do not trouble 
 to see me out. I know the way." 
 
 But Loys followed him into the hall, closing 
 the door upon her mother. 
 
 "You must be lonesome without Gregory," 
 Yorke went on. " I suppose, however, that he 
 will be away only a few days. Good-night." 
 
 But he did not go. He stood looking down 
 at her set face. He could not go away and 
 leave her thus. He was swayed by a consum- 
 ing desire to bear her away from those who had 
 heaped one burden after the other upon her 
 young shoulders. It did not occur to him at
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 265 
 
 that moment that he was thinking of adding to 
 her troubles the weightiest one under which 
 woman ever staggered. He remembered only 
 that they loved each othert 
 
 " I am sure you always add a postscript to 
 your letters," she ventured, opening the house- 
 door. She tried to smile, but the smile became 
 a moan. 
 
 " Go ; for mercy's sake, go." 
 
 She had forced upon him the fact that he 
 had no right to console her, and he left her. 
 
 She stood leaning against the door. She was 
 suffocated by the tumultuous beating of her 
 heart. 
 
 " It cannot be so. I will not have it so," 
 she insisted, passionately. " She shall tell me 
 nothing, nothing." 
 
 At length she groped her way back to the 
 room, and noiselessly opened the door. 
 
 Mrs. Yerrington was sitting erect in her 
 chair, her eyes looking unseeingly at the 
 opposite wall. 
 
 Loys stole nearer and placed her hand upon 
 her mother's arm. 
 
 " Come, dear, let us go to bed," she urged. 
 
 Mrs. Yerrington turned, looking into Loys's 
 eyes, which petitioned silence.
 
 266 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 "What a great deal you have to forgive 
 your mother," she murmured. " You cannot 
 understand, for you are a happy wife, and I was 
 never strong like you, dear. But I '11 not say 
 I am sorry," she continued, fiercely. " Do you 
 hear, I was happy once for a brief while. I 
 have paid for it, oh, I have paid for it ! You, 
 you cannot know what I have suffered. Loys, 
 Loys, my child, my only one, do not say you 
 cannot forgive me."
 
 Chapter XXI. 
 
 JJND so it came home to Bishop Yorke 
 that he had been looking with distorted 
 eyes at right and wrong ; and when he awoke to 
 a sense of the right he was brave enough to 
 follow it, though all his passions mocked at 
 him. He would go away, and at once ; by so 
 doing he would serve Loys best and prove the 
 unselfishness of his love. 
 
 There came back to him some words she 
 had said only a few weeks before. He had 
 mentioned some social duty he owed which he 
 felt it irksome to pay, and she had laughed : 
 " Happiness does not always lie through duty's 
 door, does it?" 
 
 "It certainly does not this time, so I shall 
 forego the duty," he had replied, easily. " For 
 there is the duty we owe ourselves to be happy, 
 is there not? " he had asked, growing grave. 
 
 There had been a short pause before she 
 answered. " I have thought so, too, in rebel-
 
 268 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 lious moments, when my reason was beclouded 
 and I juggled with my conscience. But, after 
 all, we have both lived long enough to know 
 that the duty we owe ourselves is to be true to 
 our higher selves." 
 
 "Even at the cost of happiness?" he had 
 urged, holding her with his eyes. 
 
 " Yes, even so," she had said, unflinchingly. 
 
 His will must acquiesce with her stronger 
 one, and he must leave her to fulfil her own 
 ideas of duty. For himself, he confessed he 
 was too weak to stay to watch the effort he 
 knew was a living torment to her. Were he to 
 stay, the hour would surely come when he would 
 speak, though knowing full well the only out- 
 come of it. 
 
 Yet at times during that night of preparation 
 he shrank from the thought of departure, so full 
 of his great need of her he almost convinced 
 himself that he had the right to persuade her it 
 would be better for them to be miserable to- 
 gether than apart. Almost, but not quite ; for 
 though for months she had been in his thoughts 
 night and day, she had always been peculiarly 
 aloof from him in a way, despite the note of 
 appeal in her eyes, which had never died out 
 since the night he had brought her home, and
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 269 
 
 which seemed to tell him she relied upon him 
 to be strong for her sake. 
 
 The draughts he had drawn upon his strength 
 were visible to Penelope Browning's eyes when 
 he called upon her the following night. 
 
 " Of course, as you have fully determined to 
 go, there is nothing more to be said," Penelope 
 remarked. " You always did do exactly what 
 you wished. We shall miss you sadly, as you 
 must know. But you will probably be in New 
 York when we arrive there. When are you 
 going to say * Good-by ' to Mrs. Kendall ? To- 
 night or to-morrow?" There was a note of 
 anxiety in her voice that she could not entirely 
 subdue. 
 
 " I suppose to-night," Yorke returned, after 
 a moment's pause. 
 
 " If she had not suddenly altered her plans, 
 she would not be home to-night. All along 
 she intended to return with her mother; but 
 although Mrs. Yerrington went home this morn- 
 ing, Loys did not accompany her. I was over 
 twice to-day, but each time the maid said Loys 
 was asleep, having suffered all night from a 
 headache. She expects Gregory home this 
 evening." 
 
 She arose in nervous haste and walked to
 
 270 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 the window, looking across the lawn to Leys' s 
 sitting-room. 
 
 "She must be better, for she is sitting by the 
 window. I wonder what she has in her arms," 
 she murmured. 
 
 Yorke arose. 
 
 " I think I shall go with you," said Van 
 Arsdale. 
 
 Yorke looked at him with protesting eyes, 
 but offered no objection. 
 
 " I shall not bid you good-by now," said 
 Penelope. "With Riker, I shall see you off." 
 
 " I do not know that I shall go to Mrs. Ken- 
 dall's after all," Yorke declared, hesitating when 
 he found himself in the street. 
 
 " You will be busy to-morrow. Come." 
 
 They mounted the steps and touched the 
 bell. A moment later they were in the living- 
 room. Loys was in a half-reclining attitude on 
 the couch, which stood before the open window, 
 and was embroidering a napkin. Upon the table 
 beside her lay a beautiful doll, arrayed in long 
 baby clothes. 
 
 " Are you not afraid Minerva will make you 
 share Arachne's fate ? " questioned Van Arsdale, 
 restraining an exclamation of surprise at her 
 appearance.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 271 
 
 Great purple shadows outlined her eyes, and 
 her face was colorless save for the unnatural 
 brilliancy of the lips. 
 
 " I only embroider ; I never weave even 
 spells," she answered, ii> a languid voice, con- 
 tinuing her work. 
 
 " You are not well," exclaimed Yorke. 
 
 " I am quite well now, but I have suffered 
 to-day," she allowed. 
 
 " I see Baby Blue Eyes must have been visit- 
 ing you," Yorke said, taking up the doll, but 
 still standing over her, scrutinizing her with 
 anxious eyes. 
 
 "I sent for her to dine with me. She is 
 already faithless to your doll. She informed 
 me that she wants a real meat baby. But in 
 default of that she was satisfied to take one of 
 our birds. We had always called him ' Dickey 
 Bird,' but she asked me what Dickey stood for, 
 and began to address the canary as Richard 
 Bird. She told me it would suit him better 
 when he was grown up." 
 
 " I suppose that occurred to her on account 
 of Mrs. Underhill's insisting upon our calling 
 the little fellow Frederic," said Van Arsdale. 
 " There will be at least one small person who 
 will miss you, Yorke."
 
 272 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 " I have concluded to hasten my plans 
 somewhat," explained Yorke, as Loys raised her 
 startled eyes from her work. " I start for New 
 York to-morrow. From there I expect to con- 
 tinue on to London." 
 
 Loys leaned down to pick up the floss she 
 had let fall to the ground, wondering if she 
 had suffered so much that she could feel noth- 
 ing more, for the news gave her nothing but a 
 slight feeling of relief. She made a stitch or 
 two in silence. 
 
 " The news is so very sudden," she finally 
 affirmed, in a level voice, working with deter- 
 mined industry, "that I have ready no little 
 speech. Yet even without it, I think you will 
 know how much we shall miss you." 
 
 "You are very kind," he rejoined, haltingly. 
 His throat was so parched that his voice sounded 
 muffled and discordant, and the evenness of 
 her words hurt him. He almost succeeded in 
 convincing himself that it was nothing to her 
 whether he went or stayed. 
 
 " You and Penelope will have little time to 
 miss anyone from now until after the wedding," 
 reminded Van Arsdale. " And by the time we 
 are fairly off, and you are once again settled in 
 your own home, you and Kendall will be start- 
 ing off for Japan."
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 273 
 
 "Oh, yes, we shall be very busy," she agreed, 
 keeping her eyes steadily upon the napkin, in 
 which every now and then she made a few 
 stitches in fitful haste; again her hand would 
 remain motionless, as though she had not the 
 strength to continue working. She was sur- 
 prised that they did not exclaim at the noise 
 her heart had again begun to make. It seemed 
 to drown her own voice. 
 
 " And I hear your book will be on the 
 market in time for the fall trade," Van Arsdale 
 continued, angered by Yorke's silence. " Pen- 
 elope was telling us of the letter you received 
 from your publishers. You must be very much 
 elated." 
 
 " Letter? " she repeated, dazedly. " Oh, yes, 
 the letter. So in October I shall figure before 
 the public again, and dear old Mr. Knight will 
 read the book because I wrote it ; and though 
 he never reads any novels but mine, he will 
 expect me to be properly dejected when he 
 points out the weak portions of the story." 
 
 Her heart was now leaping with sickening 
 rapidity. She wondered if Van Arsdale was 
 duly appreciating her composure. She sat 
 back, as it were, in her chair, and admired the 
 naturalness of her own performance. 
 1 8
 
 274 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 She felt a mad inclination to laugh at Yorke 
 as he sat with his eyes bent relentlessly upon 
 her, while he hopelessly tangled the doll's hair 
 with his large hand. 
 
 " I can see from the toilet you have made 
 that you are expecting Kendall," Van Arsdale 
 said, now utterly at a loss for words. "Do 
 you remember confiding to us once that you 
 always took special pains with yourself for his 
 home-comings?" 
 
 For the first time she noticed that she was 
 darning the monogram instead of embroider- 
 ing it. 
 
 " Did I? " she asked, laughing slightly at her 
 discovery, and looking down at her white gown. 
 " Well, I do. But you must never let him into 
 the secret." 
 
 " Let us run away before he comes, Yorke," 
 suggested Van Arsdale, " else we may be tempted 
 into telling." 
 
 She put down the napkin as Yorke slowly 
 arose. 
 
 The voices of some children who were play- 
 ing in the street floated in at the open window. 
 " King's-ex," one cried. 
 
 She wished she, too, could cross her fingers 
 and give the old childish cry. She needed a
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 275 
 
 momentary pause in which to recuperate her 
 strength. 
 
 "'Good-by ' is never an easy word to say," 
 said Van Arsdale, now seriously angry at Yorke's 
 continued silence. 
 
 " You need not say it here. You know I 
 shall accompany you to the door. Perhaps the 
 next time you come, I shall have set up a 
 footman." 
 
 "I am afraid we shall have to journey to 
 Europe if we wish to see Yorke," asserted Van 
 Arsdale. "He holds out no hope of coming 
 here for a long time." 
 
 " No ; I shall probably not return to San 
 Francisco in many years," Yorke at length said, 
 in a stifled voice. 
 
 Loys's eyes dilated. She tried to speak, but 
 only succeeded in giving an unsteady little laugh. 
 She saw that Van Arsdale was anxious to get 
 Yorke away, but she did not attempt to aid him. 
 No one need be jealous of these few last 
 moments. 
 
 She was dimly conscious of the fact that 
 Yorke's hand had tightened about her own until 
 her rings were cutting into the flesh, and that 
 his speech was broken. She could see his lips 
 moving stiffly, but there was such a surging in
 
 276 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 her ears that his words did not reach her. If 
 only the hammering of her heart would cease, 
 that she might hear his last words ! 
 
 Van Arsdale opened the door, and Yorke 
 released her hand. Then he took it again, and 
 drew it to his lips. She suffered the kiss in 
 silence. If she could but think of something 
 to say, something to keep him there a few 
 moments longer ! 
 
 Yorke continued to stand over her until 
 Van Arsdale slipped his arm through his and 
 led him down' the stairs. At the corner of 
 the street Yorke flung aside Van Arsdale's 
 hand. 
 
 " I must see her again," he muttered. " I 
 am going back." 
 
 "Are you mad? Have you not brought her 
 suffering enough ? " asked Van Arsdale, sternly. 
 
 Loys had closed the door and blindly fought 
 her way back to the room. 
 
 She resumed her seat by the window, but did 
 not take up her work. 
 
 She looked over at the chair Yorke had occu- 
 pied, and saw his hand again caressing the doll's 
 hair. She had not trusted herself to look at his 
 face. It was stupid not to have taken a last 
 look, to endure through the years, one last
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 277 
 
 look at the man to whom love had not meant a 
 selfish awakening to his own needs. 
 
 And so he had passed out of her life, and, as 
 she had always known, at least one part of Mrs. 
 Wills's prophecy was not to be fulfilled to the 
 bitter end. There was to be no tragedy, after 
 all. She would simply go on trying to satisfy 
 Gregory, taking an interest in her gowns and 
 her charities and her writing, and, after a while, 
 perhaps her heart would cease to weigh so 
 heavily. 
 
 She could not see the clock from where she 
 sat, but she feared it must be time for Gregory's 
 arrival. He must not come yet, not just yet ! 
 He must wait until she felt a little stronger, a 
 little more able to raise her face for his kisses. 
 
 She would light the spirit-lamp and have the 
 water boiling to make the tea. 
 
 Life seemed to be made up of nothing but 
 eating and drinking. She wondered what 
 Gregory would say if, for once, she neglected 
 the little attentions to which she had accus- 
 tomed him. Penelope always said she spoiled 
 him. 
 
 But she would not begin to neglect her duties 
 now ; she was glad to think of them, it brought 
 a sense of safety to think that thus far she had
 
 278 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 not slighted them. She would light the lamp 
 in a few moments, when the pain in her breast 
 had passed. No one must know how weary 
 she was, how weary she had been for the past 
 months. It was restful there, in the shadowy 
 quiet of the window, listening to the song of the 
 girl next door. It was a sad song, but all mu- 
 sic sounded sad at night. She would not com- 
 plain because that song was more heart-breaking 
 than any other. It was strange that Bishop 
 Yorke had not known the name of the song. 
 Perhaps, some day, when in Milan or Paris, he 
 would hear the music again, and it would recall 
 the evenings spent in their 
 
 And so he was going away. After a while 
 she would grow more accustomed to the thought. 
 It would grow painfully familiar, but just now 
 it did not seem that it could be true. Never 
 to see him again ! She pressed her hand to 
 her mouth as though to restrain a cry. If he 
 would return just for a moment, and 
 
 Suddenly the walls of the room began to 
 close in upon her. She could not breathe, they 
 were pressing so tight. And then she became 
 aware that Yorke's strong arms were pushing 
 them back, and she was breathing easily again 
 and could hear the song.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 279 
 
 It was kind of him to have returned, she 
 thought, smiling drowsily. Yes, it was very 
 kind of him to hold her up so that she could 
 breathe. Her thoughts were floating, but she 
 could still hold fast to .Jhe remembrance that 
 he was kind. 
 
 A silvery shaft of moonlight slanted athwart 
 her hair. When it had faded away, it had 
 left her face imbued with its own peaceful 
 splendor. 
 
 When Yorke reached the house a few 
 moments later, the maid was standing at the 
 door. She stepped aside to admit him. 
 
 " I forgot my stick," he explained. " Is Mrs. 
 Kendall still in the sitting-room?" 
 
 He opened the door, and closed it behind 
 him before turning to Loys. Then he perceived 
 she was not alone. She was lying back upon 
 the couch, and at her side knelt Penelope, her' 
 face bent upon Loys's hands. 
 
 His bounding pulses were suddenly stilled. 
 He made a few steps, then paused, leaning 
 heavily against a chair for support. 
 
 Penelope looked up, then rose, and walked 
 to him. 
 
 "Come," she said, taking his unresisting
 
 280 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 
 
 hand. " Come, look at her as she lies 
 asleep." 
 
 He followed her passively, and, in awe, they 
 stood looking down upon the beautiful serenity 
 of Loys's face. It was a peace which forbade 
 all tears or lamentations. 
 
 Not a sound issued from Yorke's lips. His 
 face had grown gray and stone-like. Then he 
 bent down to Loys, whispering, in the tone 
 of one who sues for pardon, " Loys, dear 
 love." 
 
 Penelope trembled. If Loys could have 
 heard, she would have been warmed to life 
 by his voice. 
 
 Then Penelope touched his arm. 
 
 "Do you not understand? She is dead. 
 From my window I watched her death struggle. 
 I think I might have saved her, but I made no 
 move. I was thankful she was to know relief 
 from the relentless pain she had undergone. 
 She had borne too much. It was her heart 
 Dr. Haswell told Gregory and myself last 
 September; but if she had been happy, she 
 might have lived for years. Do you hear ? she 
 is dead." 
 
 She sank down again beside Loys, and drew 
 the lifeless hands to her quivering mouth.
 
 A HOUSE OF CARDS. 281 
 
 "Will you leave me alone with her for a few 
 moments?" Yorke asked, in the same strangely 
 quiet manner. " In the years to come I shall 
 be glad of her dreamless rest, but just now ' 
 
 A key was fitted in thejiouse-door, and then 
 footsteps echoed through the hall. 
 
 Kendall had reached home. 
 
 THE END.
 
 PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAM- 
 BRIDGE, U. S. A., JrOR STONE AND 
 KIMBALL, PUBLISHERS, OF CHICAGO 
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