It was cheaper than living in Boston itself. Take just the food, for instance. Stella had always liked hot frankfurters embedded in a soft biscuit, slimy with mustard. There were several night-lunch-carts at Belcher’s Beach. At Belcher’s Beach it was not conspicuous, in the least, for a lady to buy a meal at the door of one of the night-lunch-carts, and carry it away, hot, in a damp brown paper, under her arm.

It was not conspicuous to return from Boston at a late hour with Ed Munn after one of his grand parties. It was just as well, Stella supposed, not to be seen with Ed Munn too much, after all the silly talk there had been about him and her in Milhampton years ago. Even if she could have afforded to stay on at the expensive hotel, she would have been obliged to have foregone too many parties with Ed. There were some compensations, and, ostrich-like, she stuck her head in the sand of Belcher’s Beach and proceeded to enjoy them.

One late Saturday night Ed Munn, who had seen Stella decently inside the front door of the boarding-house at Belcher’s Beach, after one of his parties in town, had asked her with an insinuating smile, glancing toward the stairs, “Sure you can unlock your door alone?”

Stella hadn’t taken offense. Ed was like that.

“Of course I can, you goose,” she flashed back. “Do I look feeble?”

You can just bet she didn’t let any masculine escort trail up any inside stairs behind her! Some women in the boarding-house did!

Too bad Ed had that common streak in him. Some men would know when and where it was good taste to spring a joke of that sort.

Stella was blissfully unaware, as she climbed the stairs alone to her room that night, that at the same moment, a touring car, with two excited women in its rear seat, was slipping smoothly away from under the arc light that hung on the tall pole outside Stella’s boarding-house.

The automobile had stopped under the light for only a moment. The chauffeur had wanted to find out how much gasoline he had. It was unfortunate for Stella that the car hadn’t stopped longer. The two occupants in the back of the car had seen Alfred Munn follow Stella Dallas into the boarding-house, but they hadn’t seen him come out!

One of the women in the back of the car was Mrs. Henry Holland. The other was Mrs. Kay Bird. They both lived in Milhampton in the winter. Mrs. Kay Bird occupied rooms directly opposite Stella in the same apartment hotel.

“It was she! I can swear to it!” said Mrs. Henry Holland, as she clutched the arm of her companion.

“It was he. I’d know him anywhere!” said Mrs. Kay Bird, as she clutched back.