de, Jay Gardiner was unusually quiet. His brain
seemed in a whirl--the strange event of the afternoon seemed like a
troubled dream whose spell he could not shake off, do what he would.

He looked keenly at the girl by his side. Surely she did not realize the
extent of the mischief she had done by announcing their betrothal.

It was not until he had seen his party home and found himself alone at
last in his boarding-house that he gave full rein to his agitated
thoughts.

It was the first time in the life of this debonair young millionaire
that he had come face to face with a disagreeable problem.

Gay, jolly Sally Pendleton, with her flashing get-up--a combination of
strangely unnatural canary-yellow hair, pink cheeks and lips, and
floating, rainbow-hued ribbons--jarred upon his artistic tastes.

He did not admire a girl who went into convulsions of laughter, as Sally
did, at everything that was said and done. In fact, he liked her less
each time he saw her. But she was young--only eighteen--and she might,
in time, have a little more sense, he reflected.

What should he do? He looked at the matter in every light; but,
whichever way he turned, he found no comfort, no way out of the dilemma.

If he were to explain to the world that the engagement was only the
outcome of a thoughtless wager, his friends would surely censure him for
trying to back out; they would accuse him of acting the part of a
coward. He could not endure the thought of their taking that view of it.
All his friends knew his ideas concerning honor, particularly where a
lady was concerned.

And now he was in honor bound to fulfill his part of the wager--marry
Sally Pendleton, whom he was beginning to hate with a hatred that
startled even himself.

Such a marriage would spoil his future, shipwreck his whole life, blast
his every hope. But he himself was to blame. When that hoidenish,
hair-brained girl had made such a daring wager, he should have declined
to accept it; then this harvest of woe would not have to be reaped.

Suddenly a thought, an inspiration, came to him. He would go to Sally,
point out to her the terrible mistake of this hasty betrothal, and she
might release him from it.

CHAPTER V.

"SHALL WE BREAK THIS BETROTHAL, THAT WAS MADE ONLY IN FUN?"

The thought was like an inspiration to Jay Gardiner. He would go to
Sally and ask her to break this hateful engagement; and surely she would
be too proud to hold him to a betroth