,
we will make our own introduction--I am Michael Arranstoun--and you
are----?"

The girl rose and made him a polite bow. "I am Sabine Delburg," she
announced. He bowed also--and then she went into a peal of silvery
laughter that seemed to contain all the glad notes of spring and youth.
"Oh, this is fun! and I--I should like some tea!" She caught sight of
herself in an old mirror, which stood upon a commode. "Goodness, what a
guy I look! Why didn't you tell me that my hat was crooked!" She settled
it straight, and began searching for a handkerchief up her sleeve and in
her belt, but none was to be found.

So Mr. Arranstoun handed her a clean one he chanced to have in his
pocket. "I expect you want to wipe the smudge of dirt off your face," he
hazarded.

She took it laughing, and showing an even row of beautiful teeth between
red, full baby lips.

"You are the owner of this castle," she went on, as she gave firm rubs
at the velvet pink cheeks. "That must be nice. You can do what you like,
I suppose," and here a sigh of regret escaped and made her voice lower.

"I wish I _could_," Mr. Arranstoun answered feelingly.

"Well, if I were _a man_, I would!"

"What would you do?"

She turned and faced him, while she said, with extreme solemnity:

"I should never marry Mr. Greenbank."

Michael laughed.

"I don't suppose you would if you were a man!" At this moment, a footman
answered the bell. "Bring tea, please," his master ordered, inwardly
amused at the servant's astonished face, and then when they were alone
again, he continued his sympathetic questioning.

"Who is Mr. Greenbank? You had to flee from him--you said he was horrid,
I believe?"

Miss Delburg had removed her hat, and was trying to tidy her hair before
readjusting it; she had the hat-pin in her mouth, but took it out to
answer vehemently:

"So he is, a pig! And I went and got engaged to him this morning! You
see," turning to the glass again, quite unembarrassed, "I can't get my
money until I am married--and Uncle is so disagreeable, and Aunt Jemima
nags all day long, and it was left in Papa's will that I was to live
with them--and I don't come of age until I am twenty-one, but I can get
the money directly if I marry--I was seventeen in May, and of course no
one could stand it till twenty-one! Mr. Greenbank is the only person
who has asked me, and Aunt Jemima says no one else ever will! I have
been out of the Convent for a whole month, and I can't