What did it mean? Why had the detective been employed to follow Stella? Instinctively she concluded that he must be engaged by Mrs. Warrington.
"I must accept Stella's invitation," she said to herself excitedly. "At least, she should be put on her guard."
That evening, as she was looking over the newspapers, her eye caught the item in the Wall Street edition:
RUBBER SYNDICATE DISSENSION
Break in Stock Follows Effort of Strong Minority to Oust Warrington from Presidency
Then followed a brief account of the struggle of a powerful group of directors to force Warrington, Braden, and the rest out, with a hint at the scandal of which every one now was talking.
"I never yet knew a man who went in for that sort of thing that lasted long in business," she observed. "This is my chance—a crowd riding for a fall."
Constance chose a modest orchestra seat in preference to the place in a box which Stella had reserved for her at the office, and, aside from the purpose which was rapidly taking shape in her mind, she enjoyed the play very much. Stella Larue, as the "Grass Widow," played her part with a piquancy which Constance knew was not wholly a matter of book knowledge.
As the curtain went down, the audience, its appetite for the risque whetted, filed out on Broadway with its myriad lights and continuous film of motion. Constance made her way around to Stella's dressing room.
She had scarcely been welcomed by Stella, whose cheeks beneath the grease paint were now genuinely ablaze with excitement, when a man entered. He was tall, spare, the type whose very bow is ingratiating and whose "delighted, I assure you" is suave and compelling.