ched that she wept aloud and
said it was what I ought to be doing. But I told her professional
aunts went only to children's parties, where they could be of some use.
Pauline wished I was going. "Betty," she said and paused, "I am sure Mr.
---- is his name Dudley? feels very much your not going." I laughed,
and marked it down against her that she should have said, "Is his name
Dudley?" It was the first evidence of feminine guile I had detected in
her. Men are answerable for a very great deal.

I woke to greet Pauline when she came into my sunlit room at five
o'clock in the morning, looking still fresh, untired, and more than ever
full of the joy of living. "Oh, it was lovely," she said, sitting down
on my bed.

"Who saw you home?" I asked professionally.

"Oh, Aunt Adela to the very door; she even waited till I shut it."

"Who did you dance with?" I asked.

"Heaps and heaps of people. I was lucky; all Thorpshire seemed to be
there; and then Mr. Dudley. Betty, I understand now."

"What?" I said, alarmed by the note of tragic kindness in her voice.

"About Mr. Dudley, he talked about you so beautifully. He agrees with
me absolutely about your character, and he told me about his sister."
Pauline's voice became hushed.

"Did he say she was just a little like you, Pauline?"

"Yes, he did. You knew her, then? He said I reminded him of her so
strangely. I think he would make a woman very happy. I do really."

"So do I, dear Pauline, really."

"Then won't you?"

"No, darling goose."

"Why?"

"Because I am not the woman. Go to bed, Pauline."

She went--to sleep? I cannot say. I forget whether a girl goes to sleep
the first night after she has fallen in love. Night? I suppose I should
say morning. But it depends on the hour when she takes the first step
into that bewildering fairyland of first love. For a fairyland it
assuredly is, if she is lucky enough to find the right guide. He must,
to begin with, believe in the fairyland. He must know that the path may
be rough at times, stony and overgrown with weeds, but he will know that
all the difficulties will be worth while when he brings her out into the
open, and they look away to the limitless horizon of happiness.

A few hours later, Pauline said to me at breakfast, "Betty, I think I
shall tell that bootmaker to make me two pairs of boots and two pairs
of shoes. It is better to have enough while one is about it, don't you
think so?"

So began the regeneratio