ome back to the hotel at six?"

"Yes, madame."

So Marie went off to her cousins, looking in some ways more like a
bride than her mistress.

Marjory preferred to walk. She wanted to get back again to the mood of
half an hour ago. She must in some way get Peter Noyes out of her
mind. So quite aimlessly they moved down the Avenue Montaigne, and
Monte waved his hand at the passing people.

"Now," he announced, "you are none of anybody's business."

"Is that true, Monte?" Marjory asked eagerly.

"True as preaching."

"And no one has any right to scold me?"

"Not the slightest. If any one tries it, turn him over to me."

"That might not always be possible."

"You don't mean to say any one has begun this soon?"

He glared about as if to find the culprit.

"Don't look so fierce, Monte," she protested, with a laugh.

"Then don't you look so worried," he retorted.

Already, by his side, she was beginning to recover. A Parisian dandy
coming toward them stared rather overlong at her. An hour ago it would
have made her uneasy; now she felt like making a face at him.

She laughed a little.

"The minister was terribly serious, was n't he, Monte?"

"Too darned serious," he nodded. "But, you see, he did n't know. I
suppose the cross-your-throat, hope-to-die kind of marriage is serious.
That's the trouble with it."

"Yes; that's the trouble with it."

"I can see Chic coming down the aisle now, with his face chalk-white
and--"

"Don't," she broke in.

He looked down at her--surprised that she herself was taking this so
seriously.

"My comrade," he said, "what you need is to play a little."

"Yes," she agreed eagerly.

"Then where shall we go? The world is before you."

He was in exactly the mood to which she herself had looked forward--a
mood of springtime and irresponsibility. That was what he should be.
It was her right to feel like that also.

"Oh," she exclaimed, "I'd like to go to all the places I could n't go
alone! Take me."

"To the Cafe de Paris for lunch?"

She nodded.

"To the races afterward and to the Riche for dinner?"

"Yes, yes."

"So to the theater and to Maxim's?"

Her face was flushed as she nodded again.

"We're off!" he exclaimed, taking her arm.

It was an afternoon that left her no time to think. She was caught up
by the gay, care-free crowd and swept around in a dizzy circle. Yet
always Monte was by her side. She could take his arm if she became too
co