And for the first time that night Killigrew smiled.

“Where’s Kitty?”

He started to his feet.  “She hasn’t got back from the opera yet.  She’ll be the death of me, one of these fine days.  You know her.  Like as not she’s stepped out of her cab to see what’s going on, and has lost herself.”

“But the Crawfords were with her.”

“Would that make any difference with Kitty if she wanted to get out?  I told her not to wear any jewels, but she wouldn’t mind me.  She never does.  I haven’t any authority except in my offices.  You and Kitty. . . .”

“Don’t scold!”

“All right; I won’t.  But, all the same, you and the girl need checking.”

“Daniel, it was only because I wanted something to occupy myself with.  It’s no fun for me to sit still in my house and watch everybody else work.  The butler orders the meals, the housekeeper takes charge of the linen, the footman the carriages.  Why, I can’t find a button to sew on anything any more.  I only wanted something to do.”

Killigrew did not smile this time.  Here was the whole matter in a nutshell:  she wanted something to do.  And there were thousands of others just like her.  Man-like, he forgot that women needed something more than money and attention from an army of servants.  He had his offices, his stock-ticker, his warfare.  Not because she wanted to vote, but because she wanted and needed something to do.

“Molly, old girl, I begin to see.  I’m going to finance a home-bureau of charity.  I mean it.  Fifty thousand the year to do with as you like.  No hospitals, churches, heathen; but the needy and deserving near by.  You can send boys to college and girls to schools; and Kitty’ll be glad to be your lieutenant.  I never had a college education.  Not that I ever needed it,”—­with sudden truculence in his tone.  “But it might be a good thing for some of the rising generations in my tenements.  I’ll leave the choice to you.  And when it comes to voting, why, tell me which way to vote, and I’ll do it.  I’ll be a bull moose, if you say so.”

“You’re the kindest man in the world, Dan, and I’m an old fool of a woman!”

Kitty burst into the room, star-eyed, pale.  “Mother!” She sped to her mother’s side.  “Oh, I felt it in my bones that something was going to happen!”

“Think of it, Kitty dear; your mother, fighting with a policeman!  Oh, it was frightful!”

“Never mind, mumsy,” Kitty soothed.  She rang for the maid, a thing her father had not thought to do.  And when her mother was snug in bed, her head in cooling bandages, her face and hands bathed in refreshing cologne, Kitty returned to her father, “Dad, you mustn’t say a word to mother about it, but I’ve been robbed.”

“What?”

“My necklace.  And I could not identify the thief if he stood before me this very minute.  The interior light was out of order.  He entered, pretending he had made a mistake.  He called me Enid and told me to put up my collar; touched my neck with his hands.  I was so astonished that I could not move.  Finally I managed to explain that he had made a mistake.  He apologized and got out; and it is quite evident that the necklace went with him.”