than for the actual material gain, the cheque handed to Carmelita was for five thousand dollars.
"It is really yours," she said to Rao-Singh, offering it to him. "I played with your money and your good fortune. Please take it."
He held up a declining hand. "Not at all. Don't feel guilty about accepting it. They are taking many times that amount away from other people to-night."
As the Hodge party was leaving, Jim Hayden, owner of Canary Cottage, reserved a special bow for Carmelita at the door. "Madame will come again?" he invited. "Perhaps," smiled Carmelita but at the time she did not think that she would.
It was in the early morning hours when Lucy Hodge's Canary Cottage expedition reached home and Carmelita, tired from her strenuous day and night, excused herself and retired to her suite.
There, pink toes curled beneath her, she sat for a few minutes thoughtfully upon her bed, her eyes resting upon a small, framed photograph of Dudley which she had sentimentally thrust into her suitcase just before leaving home. He wouldn't approve of her evening, she knew. But she had had a glorious time. It seemed to her that life was somewhat topsy-turvy. The poor boy worked so hard to pro-
