counter the handsome Frenchman again, and I re-entered the gates of
the Fair City a little out of tune, and wandered about the
brightly-illuminated and beautiful Court of Honour, finding, for the
first time in this place, that time was dragging, and wishing it were
time to meet Dave, and begin what I knew would be a lively and
two-sided discussion.

At eight o'clock there was music upon the Grand Plaza, and the
band-stand was surrounded by a merry, happy crowd. At nine the band
was playing popular airs, and a picked chorus that had been singing in
Choral Hall in the afternoon was filling the great space with vocal
melody, in which from time to time the crowd joined with enthusiasm.

Coming nearer this centre of attraction, I saw, seated near the
water's edge, and quite close to the great Fountain, the little
brunette and a companion. It was impossible to mistake the brunette,
for she wore the costume of the afternoon--a somewhat conspicuous
costume, as I afterward remembered; but her companion puzzled me. She
was tall and slight, and quietly well dressed, and her face could not
well be seen under the drooping hat which she wore. There seemed, at
the very first, something familiar about this hat. It was
broad-brimmed, slightly curved upward at the sides, and bent to shade
the face and fall over the hair at the back; but long dark plumes fell
at one side, and a third stood serenely erect in front; and suddenly I
remembered that I had seen Miss Jenrys wear such a hat upon the day of
our first meeting. But Miss Jenrys, in a dainty white theatre bonnet,
had gone up town; and there was no monopoly of drooping hats and
feathers--so I told myself.

But I wondered what mischief, new or old, the brunette was bent upon,
and I decided to give her the benefit of my unoccupied attention.

From time to time the two changed their positions, but I noted that
they kept upon the outskirts of the throng, and seemed to avoid the
well-lighted spaces, sitting or standing in the shadow of the great
statues, the columns, and angles.

For nearly an hour the music continued, vocal for the most part, and
the crowd kept in place, singing and applauding by turns. I had been
standing near the east facade of the Administration Building for some
time, having followed the brunette and her companion to that side of
the Plaza, when I saw a group of Columbian Guards, evidently off duty,
place themselves against the wall quite near me. They were stroll