suppose it ought to be encouraged. Probably there have been
others mixed up in this."

Demarest attempted no denial.

"Perhaps," he admitted, though he spoke altogether without
conviction. "But," he continued insinuatingly, "at least it can
do no harm if you see her. I thought you would be willing, so I
spoke to the District Attorney, and he has given orders to bring
her here for a few minutes on the way to the Grand Central
Station. They're taking her up to Burnsing, you know. I wish,
Gilder, you would have a little talk with her. No harm in that!"
With the saying, the lawyer abruptly went out of the office,
leaving the owner of the store fuming.



CHAPTER IV. KISSES AND KLEPTOMANIA.

"Hello, Dad!"

After the attorney's departure, Gilder had been rather fussily
going over some of the papers on his desk. He was experiencing a
vague feeling of injury on account of the lawyer's ill-veiled
efforts to arouse his sympathy in behalf of the accused girl. In
the instinct of strengthening himself against the possibility of
yielding to what he deemed weakness, the magnate rehearsed the
facts that justified his intolerance, and, indeed, soon came to
gloating over the admirable manner in which righteousness thrives
in the world. And it was then that an interruption came in the