back in the carriage for the long drive, she
cogitated: "Mr. Le Grand said that he and Miss De Voe, and Mr. Ogden had
all tried to get Peter to talk about politics, but that he never would.
Yet, he's known them for years, and is great friends with them. It's
very puzzling!"

Probably Leonore was thinking of American politics.

CHAPTER XLVII.

THE BLUE-PETER.

Leonore's puzzle went on increasing in complexity, but there is a limit
to all intricacy, and after a time Leonore began to get an inkling of
the secret. She first noticed that Peter seemed to spend an undue amount
of time with her. He not merely turned up in the Park daily, but they
were constantly meeting elsewhere. Leonore went to a gallery. There was
Peter! She went to a concert. Ditto, Peter! She visited the flower-show.
So did Peter! She came out of church. Behold Peter! In each case with
nothing better to do than to see her home. At first Leonore merely
thought these meetings were coincidences, but their frequency soon ended
this theory, and then Leonore noticed that Peter had a habit of
questioning her about her plans beforehand, and of evidently shaping his
accordingly.

Nor was this all. Peter seemed to be constantly trying to get her to
spend time with him. Though the real summer was fast coming, he had
another dinner. He had a box at the theatre. He borrowed a drag from Mr.
Pell, and took them all up for a lunch at Mrs. Costell's in Westchester.
Then nothing would do but to have another drive, ending in a dinner at
the Country Club.

Flowers, too, seemed as frequent as their meetings. Peter had always
smiled inwardly at bribing a girl's love with flowers and bon-bons, but
he had now discovered that flowers are just the thing to send a girl, if
you love her, and that there is no bribing about it. So none could be
too beautiful and costly for his purse. Then Leonore wanted a dog--a
mastiff. The legal practice of the great firm and the politics of the
city nearly stopped till the finest of its kind had been obtained for
her.

Another incriminating fact came to her through Dorothy.

"I had a great surprise to-day," she told Leonore. "One that fills me
with delight, and that will please you."

"What is that?"

"Peter asked me at dinner, if we weren't to have Anneke's house at
Newport for the summer, and when I said 'yes,' he told me that if I
would save a room for him, he would come down Friday nights and stay
over Sunday, right through