t meant to take a seat again;
I was weary and wanted to get away to bed--"I never knew how beautiful
an American Beauty rose was till I saw it beneath her face."

The Skeptic turned in his chair and looked at me. "Well done!" he cried.
"Couldn't have said it better myself. We must tell Philo that speech.
He'll be deeply gratified. He has every confidence in your taste."

"The dinner was perfect," I went on. "I never imagined one so cleverly
planned. And everybody seemed in great spirits--there wasn't a dull
moment."

"You dear thing!" said Hepatica, and came and dropped a kiss upon my
hair. "It's fun to do things for you, you're so appreciative. Didn't you
enjoy your Mining Engineer?"

"He was so entertaining," said I, "that if it had been any other dinner
than that one I shouldn't have known what I was eating."

"Hear, hear!" applauded the Skeptic. "Bouquets for us all! Didn't I make
an ideal host?"

"Your geniality was rivalled only by your tact," I declared.

They laughed together. Then the Skeptic sat up. He got up and strode
over to the window and peered down. "Philo is taking a disgracefully
long time to see the lady into her carriage," he observed. "I supposed
he'd be back, to talk it over, as usual. The best of entertaining is the
talking your guests over after they've gone--eh, Patty, girl? I don't
seem to see the carriage. Perhaps he's gone home with her."

I laid my hand upon the door of my room. "I don't know why I am so
sleepy," I apologized. "It only came over me since the door closed. But
you must both be tired, too--and we have to be up in the morning at the
usual hour."

Hepatica looked regretful, but she did not urge me to remain. I felt
guilty at leaving a wide-awake host and hostess who wanted to talk
things over, but really I--the perfume from my violets had been stealing
away my nerves all the evening. I felt that I must take them off or grow
faint at their odour, which seemed stronger as they drooped. I opened my
door, turned to smile back at the pair, and shut it upon the inside. A
moment later I was standing by my window which I had thrown wide, and
the winter wind was lifting the violets which I had already forgotten to
take off.

I heard the murmur of voices in the room outside, but it soon ceased.
With no third person to praise the feast it was probably dull work
congratulating each other on its success. By and by--I don't know when
it happened--I heard the electric entrance-bell