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Then, crouching down behind some bushes, he waited and listened and thought swiftly.

"Speak to me!" implored Minnie of the young man. "What does it mean, LeGrand? Why are you here with - with - "

"He knows my name well enough, if he wants to tell it," broke in the other. "I'm not ashamed of it, either. But who are you, I'd like to know? I never saw you before!" and the blonde woman flashed her light full on Minnie's white face.

And as the girl shrank back, Morocco Kate, so called, sneered:

"Some one else he's got on a string, I suppose! Ho! It's a merry life you lead, LeGrand Blossom!"

"Stop!" the young man exclaimed. "I can't let you go on this way. Minnie, please leave us for a moment. I'll come to you as soon as I can."

"Oh, yes! Of course!" sneered the other. "She's younger and prettier than I - quite a flapper. I was that way - once. And I suppose you said the same thing to some one else you wanted to get rid of before you took me on. Oh, to the devil with the men, anyhow!"

Minnie gasped.

"Shocked you, did I, kid? Well, you'll hear worse than that, believe me. If I was to tell - "

"Stop!" and LeGrand Blossom snapped out the words in such a manner that the desperate woman did stop.

"Minnie, go away," he pleaded, more gently. "I'll come to you as soon as I can, and explain everything. Please believe in me!"

"I - I don't believe I can - again, LeGrand," faltered Minnie. "I - I heard what you said to her just now - that you couldn't do anything more for her. Oh, what have you been doing for her? Who is she? Tell me! Oh, I must hear it, though I dread it!"

"Yes, you shall hear it !" cried LeGrand Blossom, and there was desperation in his voice. "I was going to tell you, anyhow, before I married you - "

"Oh, you're really going to marry her, are you?" sneered the blonde. "Really? How interesting!"

"Will you be quiet?" said LeGrand, and there was that in his voice which seemed to cow the blonde woman.

"Minnie," went on LeGrand Blossom, its a hard thing for a man to talk about a woman, but sometimes it has to be done. And it's doubly hard when it's about a woman a man once cared for. But I'm going to take my medicine, and she's got to take hers."

"I'm no quitter! I'm a sport, I am!" was the defiant remark. "So was Mr. Carwell - Old Carwell we used to call him. But he had more pep than some of you younger chaps.

"Leave his name out of this!" growled LeGrand, like some dog trying to keep his temper against the attacks of a cur.

"This woman - I needn't tell you her name now, for she has several," he went on to Minnie. "This woman and I were once engaged to be married. She was younger then - and - different. But she began drinking and - well, she became impossible. Believe me," he said, turning to the figure beside him, "I don't want to tell this, but I've got to square myself."

"Yes," and the other's voice was broken. "I may as well give up now as later. If anything can be saved out of the wreck - my wreck - go to it! Shoot, kid! Tell the worst! I'll stand the gaff!"

"Well, that makes it easier," resumed Blossom. "We were going to be married, but she got in with a fast crowd, and I couldn't stand the pace. I admit, I wasn't sport enough."

"I'm glad you weren't," murmured Minnie, her breast heaving.

"The result was," went on Blossom, "that she and I separated. It was as much her wish as mine - toward the end. And she married a Frenchman with whom she seemed to be fascinated."

"Yes, he sure had me hypnotized," agreed the blonde woman. "It was more my fault than yours, Lee. Perhaps if you'd taken a whip to me, and made me behave - Some of us women need a beating now and then. But it's too late now." Of a sudden she seemed strangely subdued.

LeGrand Blossom went on with the sordid tale.

"Well, the marriage didn't turn out happily. It was - "

"It was hell! I'm not afraid to use the word!" interrupted the blonde. "It was just plain, unadulterated hell! And I went into it with my eyes open. That's what it was - hell! I've had such