a voice that showed he
was glad, or excited, or something that wasn't quite calm.

"Indeed, I do think of you so," I assured him. "And you've proved your
friendship for me three times. Once on the dock. Once, by giving up
dear Vivace for me. And now again to-night, when you came to my rescue.
I was--really bored in there, you know. And people seem to give
themselves so much liberty in--in their jokes when they're masked."

"I have to thank the masks for being at Mrs. Stuyvesant-Knox's house
to-night," said Jim Brett. "You must be wondering how they let me in,
considering that, on account of the masks, everybody had to show their
invitation cards at the gates. I had mine all right. But--there are
such things as newspaper reporters, as you know to your sorrow. I don't
say I _am_ here in that capacity; but I leave you to draw your own
conclusions."

"What fun!" I exclaimed.

"It is fun now; I had no right to dare, but I did dare to hope that I
might have a glimpse of you. I was sure that I should recognise you."

"If I'd dreamed of your being here, I should have recognised you," I
said. "You're taller than any other man here, I think."

"Men grow tall in the West, where I come from."

"And strong."

"Yes, and strong, too--thank God."

"And brave."

"Men are brave all the world over."

"I should think there are none braver than you, Mr. Brett," I said.

"It's glorious for a man like me to hear such kind words from a girl
like you, though I don't deserve them," he answered. "But I shall try
to deserve them. All my life I shall be better for having heard them
from your lips. You can hardly guess what it is to me. Perhaps the
thing that comes nearest to it, would be if a prisoner for life in some
dark pit heard a voice of sympathy speaking to him--actually to
him--from a high white star."

"Oh, don't speak of yourself as a prisoner in the dark!" I cried.

"What else am I, when I stop to reflect how hopelessly I must be
removed by circumstances from glorious heights--where stars shine."

"But there can be nothing in your circumstances, Mr. Brett," I
insisted, eagerly, "which need remove you from _any_ heights. I wonder
you--so brave and strong, and an American, too--can say that of
yourself. Why, you can reach anything, do anything you really wish, if
you just want it enough."

"Do you, an English girl, a daughter of the aristocracy, tell me that?"
he asked.

"I do. As if that makes any difference--any re