me out, and was presented with a low bow and an
excruciatingly funny speech, suitable to the character which the person
had undertaken for the evening. His wit never failed.

Mr. Brett and I went up together. The Genie crossed arms and grabbed
something for us out of both his bags at the same time. Then, by
mistake, he gave me the thing from the left hand bag, and Mr. Brett the
one from the right. We walked away to let others have their chance,
looking at the presents we had got. It was funny, they both happened to
be rings.

Mine was twisted bands of platinum and gold, forming a knot to hold a
cabuchon sapphire. His was a thin setting for seven stones, set in a
straight row; diamond, emerald, amethyst, ruby, emerald, sapphire,
topaz.

"Yours is meant for a woman, and mine for a man," I said. "He got them
out of the wrong bags. But they're both pretty, and so queer."

"Will you--shall we change?" he asked.

"Oh, I didn't mean to suggest that," I hurried to say. "I can give mine
to my brother when I go home. And you--there must be some one----"

"I've no sister. And there's no one else," said Mr. Brett. "Do have it.
You see, I couldn't get it on my little finger. And won't you keep the
big one too? It isn't as if I were like Mrs. Stuyvesant-Knox's other
guests----"

I couldn't bear to hear him say that, so I broke in and insisted that
he should have the ring. "She would want you to have it of course, if
she knew," I said. "And besides, I want you to, which is something."

"It's everything," he answered.

Then we changed rings, and I told him that I hoped his would bring him
luck, glorious luck.

"Do you wish it may give me what I want most in the world?" he asked;
and I said that I did.

"What do you wish mine may give me?" I went on.

"What do you want most? Great wealth?" he questioned me.

I shook my head.

"To have the world at your feet?"

"I shouldn't know what to do with it."

"To have the one you love best on earth love you?"

"I should have to stop and think which one it is."

"Then I wish that you may love the one who loves you best on earth and
more than all the world."

Just as I was looking up, surprised at his tone more than his words,
there came a burst of music, and part of the wall, with the platform on
which the Genie and his Lamp had been standing, rolled away. The other
big room of the cellar was revealed, with quantities of little tables
all laid out for supper, and the walls