g woman.

"Diane!" he cried.

She stared at him. "You! What in Heaven's name are you doing here,
Gordon Elliot?" she demanded, and before he could answer had seized both
hands and turned excitedly to call a stocky man near. "Peter--Peter!
Guess who's here?"

"Hello, Paget!" grinned Gordon, and he shook hands with the husband of
Diane.

Elliot turned to introduce his friend, but she anticipated him.

"Cousin Diane," she said shyly. "Don't you know me?"

Mrs. Paget swooped down upon the girl and smothered her in her embrace.

"This is Sheba--little Sheba that I have told you so often about,
Peter," she cried. "Glory be, I'm glad to see you, child." And Diane
kissed her again warmly. "You two met on the boat, of course, coming
in, I hope you didn't let her get lonesome, Gordon. Look after Sheba's
suitcases, Peter. You'll come to dinner to-night, Gordon--at seven."

"I'm in the kind hands of my countrywoman," laughed Gordon. "I'll
certainly be on hand."

"But what in the world are you doing here? You're the last man I'd have
expected to see."

"I'm in the service of the Government, and I've been sent in on
business."

"Well, I'm going to say something original, dear people," Mrs. Paget
replied. "It's a small world, isn't it?"

While he was dressing for dinner later in the day, Elliot recalled
early memories of the Pagets. He had known Diane ever since they had
been youngsters together at school. He remembered her as a restless,
wiry little thing, keen as a knife-blade. She had developed into a very
pretty girl, alive, ambitious, energetic, with a shrewd eye to the main
chance. Always popular socially, she had surprised everybody by refusing
the catch of the town to marry a young mining engineer without a penny.
Gordon was in college at the time, but during the next long vacation
he had fraternized a good deal with the Peter Pagets. The young
married people had been very much in love with each other, but not too
preoccupied to take the college boy into their happiness as a comrade.
Diane always had been a manager, and she liked playing older sister
to so nice a lad. He had been on a footing friendly enough to drop in
unannounced whenever he took the fancy. If they were out, or about to go
out, the freedom of the den, a magazine, and good tobacco had been his.
Then the Arctic gold-fields had claimed Paget and his bride. That had
been more than ten years ago, and until to-day Gordon had not seen them
since.