"I'm prepared to conquer or to die," she said merrily; and going to a
large white box on the bed, she opened it and dangled in the air a
gorgeous evening gown of silver gauze shot with green. "This cost me a
thousand dollars," she commented in the hard, business-like tones Laura
had begun to dread. "I was keeping it for the ball next week, but
there's no call like the call of an emergency. The horrid creature he
fancies will be there," she added, surveying her exquisite armful with
an admiring, unhappy glance, "and it will be war to the death between
us, if it costs him every cent he has." She fell thoughtfully silent, to
break out at the end of a minute or two with a remark which had the
value of an imparted confidence: "She--I mean the creature--wore one
something like it, only not nearly so handsome--last night--and it made
her look frightfully gone off--even Perry noticed it."

Spreading the gown carefully upon the bed, she went to the mirror and
regarded herself with passionate scrutiny.

"Will you wait and see me dress?" she asked; "Annette has my cold bath
ready. I must have a colour, but I shan't be a minute in the tub."

"Do you mean that you are really going out to-night?" asked Laura,
remembering the despairing note of a few hours ago.

Gerty nodded. "To a dinner and a dance. Do you think that I will play
the neglected wife?"

A glow had sprung to her eyes that was like the animation with which an
intrepid hunter might depart upon a desperate chase--and through all her
elaborate toilette--the massaging of her face, the arranging of her
hair, the perfuming of her beautiful neck and arms--she chatted gayly in