female Bachelors of Science and graduates of Vassar, whatever
stupid people may say, have hearts _as_ well as intellects, dear, and so
they know. I seem to have had a kind of sixth sense given to me to-day,
and, when you met Lord Leighton, I saw it, and I believe you _felt_ it.
I saw your eyes brighten and your face flush--only a little, but it did,
and so did his. You know my belief in the Doctrine. You may have been
lovers--perhaps wedded lovers--once upon a time, as they say in the
fairy tales."

"How awful--no, I mean how wonderful--if it could only be true! And now,
as you've told me all this, you might as well tell me who your some one
else is."

"Really, Brenda, I thought you had more perception. He's there on the
verandah smoking with your Lord Leighton."

"Oh! Then, of course, you're going to marry him?"

"I'm sorry to say Dad doesn't want me to. With all his genius and
learning he is a perfect child in that sort of thing. He has no idea of
Natural Selection. Now listen again, Brenda.. When I had to tell Mark
that Dad wouldn't let me marry him, he picked me up out of a chair in
the verandah there, where your father and mine are sitting, and kissed
me three times."

"And I'll gamble ten cents that you kissed him back. That's Natural
Selection, if I know anything about it. Niti, if that man--and he is a
man--doesn't get killed in a fight, he'll marry you in spite of all the
misguided scientific Dads on earth. Don't you worry. You've made me just
happy. I'm not emotional that way, but I'd like to kiss you if the moon
wasn't so bright. Suppose we go back and try to assist the kindly Fates
a little bit?"

The Fates which, in some dimly-perceived fashion, seem to shape our
little successive phases of existence, were certainly in a kindly mood
that "lovely night in June." The two Professors had retired to Franklin
Marmion's sanctum for the discussion of whisky and soda and the
possibilities of physical manifestations of the Occult. Mrs van Huysman
was frankly and comfortably sleeping in the deep, amply-cushioned
armchair, and the two young men were almost as frankly pining for
sweeter companionship than their own.

But the pairing off, which was so deftly managed by Nitocris, did not at
first appear entirely satisfactory to them, yet a very few minutes'
conversation sufficed to convince them of the wisdom of the arrangement.
Brenda, with all the delicate tact which makes every highly-trained
woman a skilled