nt or two;
then she held out her hand. "Afterward--yes. I promise. And YOU promise,
Elmer?"

"Oh, to have and to hold!" he sang out, swinging about to follow her as
she hurriedly began to retrace her steps.

The March twilight had fallen, and the Stentorian facade was all aglow,
when Undine regained its monumental threshold. She slipped through the
marble vestibule and soared skyward in the mirror-lined lift, hardly
conscious of the direction she was taking. What she wanted was solitude,
and the time to put some order into her thoughts; and she hoped to steal
into her room without meeting her mother. Through her thick veil the
clusters of lights in the Spragg drawing-room dilated and flowed
together in a yellow blur, from which, as she entered, a figure detached
itself; and with a start of annoyance she saw Ralph Marvell rise from
the perusal of the "fiction number" of a magazine which had replaced
"The Hound of the Baskervilles" on the onyx table.

"Yes; you told me not to come--and here I am." He lifted her hand to his
lips as his eyes tried to find hers through the veil.

She drew back with a nervous gesture. "I told you I'd be awfully late."

"I know--trying on! And you're horribly tired, and wishing with all your
might I wasn't here."

"I'm not so sure I'm not!" she rejoined, trying to hide her vexation in
a smile.

"What a tragic little voice! You really are done up. I couldn't help
dropping in for a minute; but of course if you say so I'll be off." She
was removing her long gloves and he took her hands and drew her close.
"Only take off your veil, and let me see you."

A quiver of resistance ran through her: he felt it and dropped her
hands.

"Please don't tease. I never could bear it," she stammered, drawing
away.

"Till to-morrow, then; that is, if the dress-makers permit."

She forced a laugh. "If I showed myself now you might not come back
to-morrow. I look perfectly hideous--it was so hot and they kept me so
long."

"All to make yourself more beautiful for a man who's blind with your
beauty already?"

The words made her smile, and moving nearer she bent her head and stood
still while he undid her veil. As he put it back their lips met, and his
look of passionate tenderness was incense to her.

But the next moment his expression passed from worship to concern.
"Dear! Why, what's the matter? You've been crying!"

She put both hands to her hat in the instinctive effort to hide her
face. His