ve alone with Lieutenant von Reuter without
thinking to let your mother know, and that some accident had occurred to
delay you. At the time Polly scolded me dreadfully for my lack of faith
in you, yet I don't feel that it would be quite fair to you unless I
make this confession."

What on earth would Betty Ashton not have given at this moment to have
prevented her cheeks from suddenly crimsoning in such a ridiculous
fashion? Would she never hear the end of her escapade? Excepting her
mother, her own family had been curiously severe and unsympathetic over
what had seemed to her only an act of foolishness on her part, scarcely
a crime. And here was Polly O'Neill also frowning upon her at this
present instant as if she had been a saint herself during all her past
life.

"It is all right, Miss Adams, of course," Betty murmured. "I am not in
the least offended by your conjecture. It was natural enough under the
circumstances, I think." And here Betty raised herself on one elbow,
forgetting everything else in her earnestness. "Won't you tell me,
please, Miss Adams, if it would have been so dreadful a thing if I had
done what you supposed? Of course I should have let mother know, but
otherwise I should not have thought anything of it. Why, it seems to me
that it would have been much better had I had a companion on my walk.
Because when I was such a goose as to catch my foot in a tangle of vines
and tumble headlong, had Lieutenant von Reuter been with me he could
have helped me home or at least let mother hear so that I need not have
given so much trouble and uneasiness."

Miss Adams kissed the girl impetuously, failing to see that Polly was
frowning at them both.

"Yes, dear, since you honestly wish to know, it would not have been
wise," the older woman answered, "though I understood at the time that
you might have done the thing without thinking. You know there is an old
expression--and of course these old expressions bore us so that we are
apt to forget how vital they are--that when we live in Rome we must do
as the Romans so. I wish American girls would remember this adage a
little better when they are traveling in Europe. You see, these old
countries over here have had their customs much longer than we have had
ours, and a walk with a friend would have meant nothing of any
importance to you, but to them----"

"Margaret," Polly O'Neil broke into the conversation abruptly, "I don't
mean to be rude in interrupting you.