le.
Sister Loretto says that is the worst kind--the awful kind. She talked
to me every day about it. She said that money was a curse when people
used it only for their ease. Sister Loretto hates laziness. She had
money herself before she took her vows, but now she works every hour of
the day and she says it brings her happiness."

Randy shook his head. "Most of us need to play around a bit, Becky."

"Do we? I--I think most women would be better off if they were like
Sister Loretto."

"They would not. Stop talking rot, Becky, and take that thing off your
head. It makes you look like a nun."

"I know. I saw myself in the glass. I don't mind looking like a nun,
Randy."

"Well, I mind. Turn your head and I'll take out that pin."

"Don't be silly, Randy."

He persisted. "Keep still while I take it out----"

He found the pin and unwound the white cloth. "There," he said, drawing
a long breath, "you look like yourself again. You were so--austere, you
scared me, Becky."

He was again hugging his knees. "When are you going away?"

"On the twenty-ninth. I shall stay over until next week for the
Merriweathers' ball."

"I didn't know whether you would feel equal to it."

"I shall go on Mary's account. It will be her introduction to Truxton's
friends, and if I am there it will be easier for her. She has a lovely
frock, jade green tulle with a girdle of gold brocade. It came down for
me with a lot of other clothes, and it needed only a few changes for her
to wear it."

"You will be glad to get away?"

"It will be cooler--and I need the change. But it is always more formal
up there--they remember that I have money. Here it is forgotten."

"I wish I could forget it."

"Why should you ever think of it?" she demanded with some heat. "I am
the same Becky with or without it."

"Not quite the same," he was turning his hat in his hand. Then, raising
his eyes and looking at her squarely, he said what he had come to say,
"I have--I have just been to see Dalton, Becky."

A wave of red washed over her neck, touched her chin, her cheeks. "I
don't see what that has to do with me."

"It has a great deal to do with you. I told him you were going to marry
me."

The wave receded. She was chalk-white.

"Randy, how dared you do such a thing?"

"I dared," said Randy, with tense fierceness, "because a man like Dalton
wants what other men want. He will think about you a lot, and I want him
to think. He won't sleep to-night, an