soared in ecstasy, and left him tongue-tied. In vulgar parlance he was rattled to death, this commonplace little lawyer who for a score of years had dealt cynically with the loves and lives of the flock of female butterflies who fluttered annually in and out of the office. Throughout that period he had sat unemotionally behind his desk and listened in an aloof, cold, professional manner to the stories of their wrongs as they sobbed or hissed them forth. Wise little lawyer that he was, he had regarded them all as just what they were and nothing else-specimens of the Cecropia. And he had not even patted them upon the shoulder or squeezed their hands when he had bade them good-bymaintaining always an impersonal and dignified demeanor. Therefore he was surprised to hear himself say in soothing, almost cooing tones: "Well, my dear, what can I do for you?" Shades of Abigail! "Well, my dear!" Tutt→→ Tutt! Tutt! "I am in great trouble," faltered Mrs. Allison, gazing in misty helplessness out of her blue grottoes at him while her beautiful red lips trembled. "I hope I can help you!" he breathed. "Tell me all about it! Take your time. May I relieve you of your wrap?" She wriggled out of it gratefully and he saw. for the first time the round, slender pillar of her neck. What a head she had-in its nimbus of hazy gold. What a figure! His forty-eight-yearold lawyer's heart trembled under its heavy layer of half-calf dust. He found difficulty in articulating. He stammered, staring at her most shamelessly, both of which symptoms she did not notice. She was used to them in the other sex. Tutt did not know what was the matter with him. He had in fact entered upon that phase at which the wise man, be he old or young, turns and runs. But Tutt did not run. In legal phrase he stopped, looked and listened, experiencing a curious feeling of expansion. This enchanting creature transmuted the dingy office lined with its rows of calfskin bindings into a golden grot in which he stood spellbound by the low murmur of her voice. A sense of infinite leisure emanated from her-a subtle denial of the ordinary responsibilities-very relaxing and delightful to Tutt. But what twitched his very heartstrings was the dimple that came and went with that pathetic little twisted smile of hers. "I came to you," said Mrs. Allison, "because I knew you were both kind and clever." Tutt smiled sweetly. "Kind, perhaps not clever!" he beamed. "Why, everyone says you are one of the cleverest lawyers in New York," she protested. Then, raising her innocent China-blue eyes to his she murmured, "And I so need kindness!" Tutt's breast swelled with an emotion which he was forced to admit was not altogether avuncular -that curious sentimental mixture that middleaged men feel of paternal pity, Platonic tenderness and protectiveness, together with all those other euphemistic synonyms, that make them eager to assist the weak and fragile, to try to educate and elevate, and particularly to find out just how weak, fragile, uneducated and unelevated a helpless lady may be. But in spite of his half century of experience Tutt's knowledge of these things was purely vicarious. He could have told another man when to run, but he didn't know when to run himself. He could have saved another, himself he could not save at any rate from Mrs. Allison. He had never seen anyone like her. He pulled his chair a little nearer. She was so slender, so supple, so what was it?-svelte! And she had an air of childish dignity that appealed to him tremendously. There was nothing, he assured himself, of the vamp about her at all. "I only want to get my rights," she said, tremulously. "I'm nearly out of my mind. know what to do or where to turn!" I don't "Is there"-he forced himself to utter the word with difficulty-"a-a man involved?" She flushed and bowed her head sadly, and instantly a poignant rage possessed him. "A man I trusted absolutely," she replied in a low voice. "His name?" "Winthrop Oaklander." Tutt gasped audibly, for the name was that of one of Manhattan's most distinguished families, the founder of which had swapped glass beads and red-flannel shirts with the aborigines for what was now the most precious water frontage in the world -and moreover, Mrs. Allison informed Tutt, he was a clergyman. "I don't wonder you're suprised!" agreed Mrs. Allison. "Why-I-I'm-not surprised at all!" prevaricated Tutt, at the same time groping for his silk handkerchief. "You don't mean to say you've got a case against this man Oaklander!" "I have indeed!" she retorted with firmly compressed lips. "That is, if it is what you call a case for a man to promise to marry a woman and then in the end refuse to do so." "Of course it is!" answered Tutt. "But why on earth wouldn't he?" "He found out I had been divorced," she explained. "Up to that time everything had been lovely. You see he thought I was a widow." "Ah!" |