ght glow
from a heavily-shaded lamp, for the arbor stood among dense shrubbery,
and but for this lamp would have been in Egyptian darkness, she was
indeed a personification of loveliness.

Ungracious as was his mood, Percy would not have been a beauty-adoring
mortal if he had not paid involuntary tribute to the charms of the
woman who was his bitterest foe. Gazing down upon her a moment, he
said in his soft legato:

"I am almost angry at you for being so beautiful, after having taken
yourself to other lovers, _Ma belle_."

The woman smiled triumphantly, as she threw herself into an easy
chair, and said in her softest, sweetest tone: "And did you expect me
to go mourning for you all these years, sir?"

"I don't think you were ever the woman to do that;" dropping lazily
into a rustic seat near her. "May I smoke?"

Cora nodded.

"Are you sure we are quite safe here?" looking about him. "Somehow, I
am suspicious of that sharp French maid."

"Quite sure," nodding again. "Mr. Arthur was in bed before I came out;
Miss Arthur was ordering up a lunch to her room, and the French maid
must needs be in attendance for an hour or more; and besides, I know
she is not at all dangerous. None of the other servants ever have
occasion to come here, and most of them are in bed by now."

"So your charming sister-in-law eats, does she? After parting from me,
too; ugh!"

"Eats? I should think so," laughing softly; "in her own room, when her
stays are not too tight."

"Spare me!"

He held up both hands in mock deprecation; then, dropping his
bantering tone, said, as he puffed at his cigar:

"But now to business. You did not come out here in such bewitching
toilet to tell me that my charmer eats?"

"Hardly," with a pretty shrug.

"For what, then?"

"To come to an understanding with you," coolly.

"As how?" in the same tone.

"As to our future standing with each other."

"I thought that was settled to-day?"

"Did you? I don't think it was settled."

"Well, what remains, fair Alice?"

"Will you drop that name?"

"For the present, yes; but with reluctance."

"Oh, certainly!" bitterly. "Now, what are we to be henceforth?"

"Friends, of course," knocking the ashes off his cigar.

"You and I may be allies; we can never be friends," she said,
scornfully.

"Don't trouble yourself to be insulting, Mrs.--a--Arthur."

"Then don't make me remember how I have hated you!"

"Have you really hated me? How singular."

"Ve