looks badly. I
don't care for myself, of course, but for you it looks badly."

"If it's only for me--I don't care how it looks. Come and sit down
beside me, and talk to me, Dicky, and I'll tell you really why I
came."

Dick folded his arms and looked down at her. Betty's piquant little
face, olive tinted, and pure oval in contour, was turned up to him
confidently; under the close seal turban the soft brown hair framed
the childish face, while the big dark eyes danced with mischief. She
patted the couch by her side invitingly.

"I'll go away in fifteen minutes, Dicky dear. It certainly wouldn't
look well if you put me out immediately, after all your establishment
knowing that I waited here an hour for you."

Dick took out his watch.

"Fifteen minutes, then," he said. "What's your trouble, Betty?"

"Well, it's a long sad story," she temporized. "Perhaps I had better
not begin on it now that our time is so short. You wouldn't like to
hold my hand, would you, Dicky?"

"I'm not going to, at any rate."

"I thought you'd say that," she sighed. "Have you seen Nancy lately?"

"Yesterday."

"She's looking better, don't you think so?"

"Yes."

"Preston Eustace is back."

"Is that so? I didn't know he was here yet. I knew he was coming."

"He's to be here six months, or so."

"Have you seen him?"

"No, Caroline told me." Her voice was carefully steadied but Dick
noticed for the first time the shadows etched under the big brown
eyes, and the flush of excitement splotched high on her cheek-bones.
She had been engaged to Preston Eustace for three months succeeding
her twentieth birthday.

"On second thoughts I think I will hold your hand, Betty," he said,
covering that childlike member with his own rather brawny one. "You
are not a very big little girl, are you, Betty?"

"My mother used to tell me that I was a very destructive child."

"I shouldn't wonder if you were that yet."

"Don't let's talk about me. Let's talk about you, Dicky."

"About me?"

"Yes, please. I think you're a very interesting subject."

Having arrived at some conclusion concerning this unprecedented attack
upon his privacy, Dick was disposed to be kind to his unexpected
visitor. The fact that Preston Eustace was in town and Betty had not
seen him shed an entirely new light on her recklessness. Like every
other incident in Betty's history her love-affair had been very
conspicuously featured.

"The interesting things about me just a