a detail, for
really the principal thing he had called for was a ring with a single
diamond in it--and perhaps--well, yes--that little sapphire band to keep
it on a slender finger.

The rings, in their delicate cases, he put into his pocket when he had
paid; but the other purchases were to go in that very same now which had
been impressed upon the florist; the sort of now to which Riviera
shopkeepers are accustomed only when they deal with Americans.

Then Madame's sister was found, and a blue hat; and there was just time
left for a frantic rush to a toyshop, round a corner and up a hill.
Perhaps Doll Evie might be jealous of one rival, but there's safety in
numbers; and Hugh thought that a dozen assorted sizes, from life-size
down, would keep a doll's house from echoing with loneliness. As for the
presents for the Eze children, Rosemary was to choose them herself by
and by; but all these special things were to be served up, so to speak,
at the Hotel Pension Beau Soleil with early breakfast.

When he had finished,--which means, when he had bought everything he
could think of--Hugh looked at his watch. It was half an hour to the
minute since he had left his hotel.

"I don't see why it should take women a long time to shop," said he to
himself. "It seems to me the simplest thing in the world. You just see
what you want, and then you buy it."

It was not until all the boxes and parcels must have arrived in the
Condamine, that an agonizing thought struck Hugh. What if Evie should be
offended with him for buying her things to wear? What if she should
imagine him capable of thinking that the things she already had were not
good enough when she was coming out with him?

He suddenly felt a hundred years old. "Ass--worm--menagerie!" he
anathematized himself.

It was now nine thirty. At ten forty-five he was to call at the Hotel
Pension Beau Soleil, to take Evelyn and Rosemary to the English church.
How could he bear the suspense till then,--how endure it not to know
whether he had ruined the Christmas which was to have been so perfect?

He dashed into his own hotel, wrote five notes one after the other,
tearing up each one before it was finished. It was no good explaining.
If she didn't understand nothing would make her. But _would_ she
understand? He knew now why some women said that all men were fools.
They were quite right.

If he had dared, he would have gone to her at once, to be put out of
his misery, one way or