"You complied with her request, Mr. Venner, and went to call upon her?"

"Certainly."

"Where is she quartered?"

"She rents a furnished house uptown."

"Does she live alone?"

"With her servants only."

"How many?"

"She keeps a butler, a male cook, and two housemaids. Also a girl to
look after her wardrobe and act as her dresser at the theater."

"Evidently Señora Cervera is wealthy," said Nick.

"Well, not exactly wealthy," rejoined Venner. "She is the popular craze
just now, and from her professional work she derives a very large income
which she scatters as if dollars were dead leaves. In a word, Detective
Carter, Señora Cervera is an arrant spendthrift."

"So I have heard," nodded Nick.

"You have?"

"Oh, yes!" laughed the detective. "That appears to surprise you. It