I chirped, nervously. "How do you do, Mrs.
Stuyvesant-Knox?"

Sally murmured something, too, and Stan had the grace to claw off his
hat, showing how damp his poor hair was on his crimson forehead, but he
didn't even pretend to smile.

"A nice dance you've led us," said he. "By Jove, I wouldn't have
thought it of you, Betty."

"Maybe you don't understand yet," said I. "Wait till I've explained,
and I'm sure you won't be cross, because you always were a dear."

"It's no good wheedling," he grumbled. "I'm not going to wait for
anything. We've come to take you home, and the quicker you pack up and
get ready the better."

"What do you mean by home?" I enquired.

"To Mrs. Stuyvesant-Knox's house in New York, where she says she'll be
good enough to put us up till the next decent ship sails for England."

"I'm not going back to Mrs. Stuyvesant-Knox's," said I. "She knows why
it's impossible."

"Rot," said Stan. "She's jolly kind to have you, after the way you've
acted. Anybody'd think you were eight, instead of eighteen. You deserve
to be put on bread and water for making me come three thousand miles to
fetch you home."

"I didn't ask you to come," said I, "and you needn't have bothered. Is
Vic engaged yet?"

"Yes, she is; the day before I started. What's that got to do with it?"

"A good deal, according to her," I replied. "I'm engaged, too."

"The dickens you are!" exclaimed Stan, getting redder than ever, while
Mrs. Ess Kay gave a little start and glared at Sally.

My blood was up now, and I didn't care what I said. The sooner Stan
knew everything just as it was, the better.

"Yes, the dickens I am," I echoed, defiantly, "and I don't intend to be
treated like a naughty child, by anyone. I've done nothing wrong, or
underhand. We've only been engaged since yesterday, though we both fell
in love at first sight on shipboard, and we've written to mother and
you, this very morning."

"Engaged to a man you met on shipboard!" repeated Stan, looking
flabbergasted, and turning from me to Mrs. Ess Kay.

"Tom Doremus!" she gasped. "Yet no, that's impossible. He's in Newport.
But there was no one else. I was particularly careful."

"I am engaged to marry Mr. James Brett," I said. "He is----"

"There was no such man on the ship," she broke in, sharply.

Then, suddenly, she almost jumped.

"Goodness _gracious!_" she exclaimed. "Oh, Duke, this is too _awful_. I
remember there was a person in the _steerage_. But thi