ent indoors,
laughing boisterously.

The young fellow and the girl beside him were now quite weak and
trembling with suppressed mirth.

* * * * *

They had not dared venture out on the lawn, although dance music had
begun again.

"Is it your name they called?" he asked, his eyes very intent upon her
face.

"Yes, Nihla."

"I recognise you now," he said, with a little thrill of wonder.

"I suppose so," she replied with amiable indifference. "Everybody
knows me."

She did not ask his name; he did not offer to enlighten her. What
difference, after all, could the name of an American student make to
the idol of Europe, Nihla Quellen?

"I'm in a mess," she remarked presently. "He will be quite furious
with me. It is going to be most disagreeable for me to go back into
that house. He has really an atrocious temper when made ridiculous."

"I'm awfully sorry," he said, sobered by her seriousness.

She laughed:

"Oh, pouf! I really don't care. But perhaps you had better leave me
now. I've spoiled your moonlight picture, haven't I?"

"But think what you have given me to make amends!" he replied.

She turned and caught his hands in hers with adorable impulsiveness:

"You're a sweet boy--do you know it! We've had a heavenly time,
haven't we? Do you really think you ought to go--so soon?"

"Don't you think so, Nihla?"

"I don't want you to go. Anyway, there's a train every two hours----"

"I've a canoe down by the landing. I shall paddle back as I came----"

"A canoe!" she exclaimed, enchanted. "Will you take me with you?"

"To Paris?"

"Of course! Will you?"

"In your ball-gown?"

"I'd adore it! Will you?"

"That is an absolutely crazy suggestion," he said.

"I know it. The world is only a big asylum. There's a path to the
river behind these bushes. Quick--pick up your painting traps----"

"But, Nihla, dear----"

"Oh, please! I'm dying to run away with you!"

"To Paris?" he demanded, still incredulous that the girl really meant
it.

"Of course! You can get a taxi at the Pont-au-Change and take me home.
Will you?"

"It would be wonderful, of course----"

"It will be paradise!" she exclaimed, slipping her hand into his.
"Now, let us run like the dickens!"

In the uncertain moonlight, filtering through the shrubbery, they
found a hidden path to the river; and they took it together, lightly,
swiftly, speeding down the slope, all breathless with laughter, along
th