SHORTLY after Lucas Cullen, Senior, had communicated to his family his decision to attend the sitting at Mrs. Stanton-Fielding's, Barney received by special messenger one of those cards which admitted the holder to Mrs. Stanton-Fielding's drawing-room between four-thirty and five-thirty. With the card came a note enjoining him to be present early, to occupy an inconspicuous position and particularly to avoid recognition by the Cullens but to closely observe them.
These directions were not signed, but Barney was sure that his mother had written them. Though he had never seen her writing, these firm, clearly defined characters without the slightest trace of carelessness or tendency toward flourish immediately associated themselves in his mind with the personality of her whom, during these recent, remarkable weeks of her recuperation, he had come to know as mother. She had left the hospital several days before this and had been continuing her convalescence in the seclusion of an apartment upon Division Street far enough west to be wholly out of the paths of her former neighbors and yet within a few minutes' ride of the Drive and of Scott Street.
When Barney had last seen her, which was three days before that upon which he received her note, she had
