' I said,
'and not care for you, and it seems as natural to tell you so as it
would for me to tell another girl. You worry sometimes because you
can't remember your father,' I said, 'and because your mother is so
undemonstrative with you; but I want you to think, the next time you
feel sort of out of it, that there is a woman who really and truly
thinks that you are the best man in the world--'"

Mrs. Salisbury had risen to a sitting position; her eyes, fixed upon
her daughter's face, were filled with utter horror.

"You are not serious, my child!" she gasped. "Alexandra, tell me that
this is some monstrous joke--"

"Serious! I never was more serious in my life," the girl said stoutly.
"I said just that. It was easy enough, after I once got started. And I
thought to myself, even then, that if he didn't care he'd be decent
enough to say so honestly--"

"But, my child--my CHILD!" the mother said, beside herself with
outraged pride. "You cannot mean that you so far forgot a woman's
natural delicacy--her natural shrinking--her dignity--Why, what must
Owen think of you! Can't you SEE what a dreadful thing you've done,
dear!" Her mind, working desperately for an escape from the unbearable
situation, seized upon a possible explanation. "My darling," she said,
"you must try at once to convince him that you were only joking--you
can say half-laughingly--"

"But wait!" Alexandra interrupted, unruffled. "He put his hand over
mine, and he turned as red as a beet--I wish you could have seen his
face, Mother!--and he said--But," and the happy color flooded her face,
"I honestly can't tell you what he said, Mother," Alexandra confessed.
"Only it was DARLING, and he is honestly the best man I ever saw in my
life!"

"But, dearest, dearest," her mother said, with desperate appeal. "Don't
you see that you can't possibly allow things to remain this way? Your
dignity, dear, the most precious thing a girl has, you've simply thrown
it to the winds! Do you want Owen to remind you some day that YOU were
the one to speak first?" Her voice sank distressfully, a shamed red
burned in her cheeks. "Do you want Owen to be able to say that you
cared, and admitted that you cared, before he did?"

Alexandra, staring blankly at her mother, now burst into a gay laugh.

"Oh, Mother, aren't you DARLING--but you're so funny!" she said. "Don't
you suppose I know Owen well enough to know whether he cares for me or
not? He doesn't know it himself, that