r fled through the age of
fable!"

And he bolted a section of frosting and began to chew vigorously upon
another, while she slipped both hands into his, regarding him with tender
solicitude.

"Have no fears for me, dearest," he said indistinctly; "fortified by
months of pie I dread no food ever prepared by youth and beauty. Even the
secret dishes of the Medici----"

"John!"

"W-what, darling?"

"After all--I don't cook so badly."

So, in the gloaming, he swallowed the last crumb and gathered her into
his strong young arms, and drew her golden head down close to his.

"Take it from me," he whispered, relapsing into the noble idioms of his
adopted country, "you're all to the mustard, Diana; your eats were bully
and I liked 'em fine!"

[Illustration]

XIV

THE situation in Great Britain was becoming deplorable; the Home
Secretary had been chased into the Serpentine; the Prime Minister and a
dozen members of Parliament had taken permanent refuge in the vaults of
the Bank of England; a vast army of suffragettes was parading the streets
of London, singing, cheering, and eating bon-bons. Statues, monuments,
palaces were defaced with the words "Votes for Women," and it was not an
uncommon sight to see some handsome young man rushing distractedly
through Piccadilly pursued by scores of fleet-footed suffragettes of the
eugenic wing of their party, intent on his capture for the purposes of
scientific propagation.

No young man who conformed to the standard of masculine beauty set by the
eugenist suffragettes was safe any longer. Scientific marriage between
perfectly healthy people was now a firmly established principle of the
suffragette propaganda; they began to chase attractive young men on sight
with the avowed determination of marrying them to physically qualified
individuals of their own sex and party, irrespective of social or
educational suitability.

This had already entailed much hardship; the young Marquis of Putney was
chased through Cadogan Place, caught, taken away in a taxi, and married
willy-nilly to a big, handsome, strapping girl who sold dumb-bells in the
new American department store. No matter who the man might be
professionally and socially, if he was young and well-built and athletic
he was chased on sight and, if captured, married to some wholesome and
athletic young suffragette in spite of his piteous protests.

"We will found," cried Mrs. Blinkerly Dank-some-Hankly triumphantly, "