ington--for
you--for you, you know."

The Colonel never was embarrassed save when he was endeavoring to
propose marriage to Miss Alathea and he always was embarrassed then. She
recognized the situation from the mere tone of his voice and looked up
hopefully.

"Oh, Colonel, how kind!" said she, as she held delighted hands out for
the box. "I know it is beautiful."

"It was quite the best I could do, Miss 'Lethe," said the Colonel.

"You have such splendid taste! I'm sure it's lovely." She opened the box
and looked, expectantly, within. "Why, Colonel," she cried,
disappointed, "where are--where are the flowers?"

"Why--why--why," he stammered, and then saw the mutilated blossoms on
the ground around him. "Why, I don't know--don't know," said he. "'Don't
ask me."

She was rummaging among the stems, nonplussed. "Why, here's a note!" she
said.

"Thank heaven!" the Colonel thought, "the note's there yet!" Then,
growing bold: "Miss 'Lethe, if you've a kindly feeling for me in your
heart, read that note; but don't you get excited; keep cool, keep cool!"

"Why, certainly," said she. "I see no cause for excitement." She
unfolded the note and read, aloud, and very slowly, for the Colonel's
hand was not too easy to decipher. "'My dear, dear Miss 'Lethe: Woman
without her man is a savage.'" She looked up, naturally astonished by
this unusual statement. "Why, Colonel," she exclaimed, "what can you
mean by saying woman is a savage without her man?"

He stood appalled for just a second and then realized the error into
which his ardor had misled him. "Great Scott!" he cried. "I forgot to
put in the commas! It ought to read this way: 'Woman, without her, man
is a savage.' Go on, Miss 'Lethe, please go on."

She read again: "'I feel that it is time for me to become civilized--in
other words, to come in out of the wet. To me you have been, for twenty
years, the embodiment of woman's truth, purity and goodness. But
constitutional timidity and chronic financial depression, due to the
race-track, have hitherto kept me silent.'" Miss 'Lethe looked up at him
with a strange expression on her face. "Colonel," she exclaimed, "what
does this mean?"

"Go on, Miss 'Lethe," was the answer, "please go on, go on." He made a
mighty effort to secure control of his unruly nerves, and, almost
unconsciously, while her head was bent above the note, took a small
flask from his pocket and imbibed from it. It steadied him.

She read again: "'I am