tt. But now you understand, will you forgive me?"

"I don't understand yet, except that you must have been afraid I might
care more for your money than for you, if I knew. Oh, how _could_ you
think such a thing of me? But about the steerage----"

"That was beforehand. It had nothing to do with you, though everything
that was to come, came from it. I was abroad for a couple of years, and
a friend I knocked up against in Paris last June bet me a thousand
dollars that in spite of all my queer experiences, I wouldn't have the
pluck to rough it in the steerage of a big ocean liner. I took the bet,
and won it. If it hadn't been for seeing you, I should have gone West
almost at once after landing in New York, but I _had_ seen you, so I
stayed. Luckily for me, I'd met Miss Woodburn often in San Francisco
and once here. She recognised me in my steerage get-up and was the only
one who did; but her tact kept her from spoiling sport. She guessed
there must be a game on, and said not a word to anyone. She wouldn't,
even if I hadn't managed to send her a note, which I did. I had a
conversation with her on board, too, the day before getting in, and--we
talked about you. Even then I felt sure you couldn't be the sort of
girl to care about money, but----"

"It was partly my fault, Betty," Sally broke in when he paused. "To be
quite, quite frank, I knew that the Duchess had fallen in with some
ideas of Katherine's, and I couldn't tell how far your bringing up
mightn't have influenced your nature, so I encouraged Mr. Harborough to
test you by keeping up the story that he was a poor young fellow named
Jim Brett. It handicapped him, and kept him away from you; but you were
interested in him to start with, and I did my best to keep up the
romance. I thought he wouldn't lose by it in the end, and he hasn't.
There was the morning in the Park; I managed that; and I got Katherine
to send him an invitation to her big party. He was playing a waiting
game, because he wanted you to care in spite of every drawback, or else
he wouldn't want you to care at all; and then, before he was ready for
any _coup_, Fate stepped in and did the rest."

"In the best way it could have been done, I think," said Jim. "Now,
little girl, do you understand, and have you forgiven me?"

"I'd like to think you could have trusted me from the very first,
without playing at all," I answered. "Still--it _is_ romantic, isn't
it? And besides, even if I were very angry, I--I'