s. I don't want
to go, either. I'm having a wonderful experience. But----"

"Haven't you met any man you could imagine yourself caring for, deah?
Or, perhaps, you don't fancy Americans."

"Oh, I do," I exclaimed. "They're all great fun. And one--one man I've
met I think superior to any other I ever knew. But then, I've known so
few, and I don't know him well. You needn't look at me like that. It
isn't a romance, you dear. I'm most unlikely to know him any better,
ever. He--isn't like the rest. He isn't like anybody else I ever saw."

"Now," said Sally, coaxingly, "you might tell me if he's one of the
three who proposed?"

"Indeed, he isn't, and he never will. Why, Sally, I don't mind telling
you I mean that Mr. Brett, who was on the ship, and whom we met
afterwards accidentally in the Park. He is rather wonderful--considering
his station--isn't he?"

"He'd be rather wonderful in any station. That's my theory about him."

"I think it's mine, too. He was here to-night--as a newspaper reporter,
he hinted, though he didn't exactly say he was, in so many words. Did
he talk to you?"

"Yes," said Sally. "Indirectly, I got him his chance to come."

"I gave him good advice," said I, laughing. "All about his future, and
ambition, and things like that. I hope he'll take it."

"He'll probably try all he knows. Did he thank you prettily?"

"I'm not sure whether he thanked me at all. But he gave me this ring,
and wished me luck with it. It was the Genie's present to him in
Aladdin's Cave. I changed with him, for the one I had. But this is much
prettier. Look."

"D-E-A-R-E-S-T, Dearest," Sally spelt out, as she held the third finger
of my right hand, on which I'd slipped the ring.

"Where do you find that?" I asked quickly.

"Don't you know? Why, the stones spell it. Diamond, emerald, amethyst,
ruby, emerald, sapphire, topaz."

I felt my cheeks burn when she gave me this explanation.

I wonder if Mr. Brett knew?

XII

ABOUT A WEDDING AND A DISASTER

It's more than a fortnight since I've been able to write about any of
the things that have happened to me. The last I did was on the morning
after the Great Affair, when we were looking forward to the Pink Ball
in the evening. Mrs. Ess Kay didn't quite have her wish, for the ball
was a moderate success; but it did seem a pale pink after the
gorgeousness of the night before, and it might have been still paler
(as everyone felt rather washed out) if it hadn't b