unny--so startling! Yes, it must have been--funny."

"Ella was wearing such a lovely frock--covered with diamonds. I wish
that you had seen her."

"Ah!"

"I never saw anything so lovely. I told her that it was a bridal
toilet."

"A bridal toilet?"

"We thought it such a pity that it should be wasted. She didn't go to
the opera, of course."

"And it was wasted--wasted?"

"Oh, no! When her husband came in with papa, about midnight, we laughed
and said that her dressing herself in that way was an inspiration; that
something told her that he was returning."

"Probably a telegram from Paris had told her; that was the source of her
inspiration."

"Oh, no! what was so funny about the matter was that Mr. Linton's
servant bungled sending the telegram, so that Ella knew nothing of his
coming."

"Great Heavens!"

"You have not seen Ella since your return?"

"No; I have been with her husband on business all day, however."

"And of course he would not have occasion to refer to so casual an
incident as his wife's wearing a new toilet."

"Of course not. The word inspiration has no place in a commercial
vocabulary, Miss Ayrton."

"But it is a good word elsewhere, Mr. Courtland.

"Yes, it has its meaning. You think that it may be safely applied to the
wearing of an effective toilet. I wonder if you would think of applying
it to the words you said to me on the last evening I was here?"

It was in a very low tone, and after a long pause, that she said:

"I hope if what I told you Mrs. Haddon said was an inspiration, it was a
good one. I felt that I must tell you, Mr. Courtland, though I fear that
I gave you some pain--great pain. I know what it is to be reminded of an
irreparable loss."

"Pain--pain?" said he. Then he raised his eyes to hers. "I wonder if
you will ever know what effect your words had upon me, Miss Ayrton?" he
added. "I don't suppose that you will ever know; but I tell you that
it would be impossible for me ever to cease to think of you as my good
angel."

She flushed slightly, very slightly, before saying:

"How odd that Ella should call me her good angel, too, on that same
night!"

"And she spoke the truth, if ever truth was spoken," he cried.

Her face was very serious as she said:

"Of course I don't understand anything of this, Mr. Courtland."

"No," he said; "it would be impossible for you to understand anything
of it. It would be impossible for you to understand how I feel toward
y