ishingly handsome and valuable;
newspapers clamoured for her picture, and wherever she went she was
immediately the focus for all eyes. That old Judge Lee should send her
some of his mother's beautiful diamonds; that Christopher and Alice
should order for her great crates of specially woven linen that were
worthy of a queen; that Emanuel Massaro, the painter of the hour, should
ask her to sit for him, were all just so much sheer pleasure added to
the sum total of her happiness in loving the man of her choice and
knowing herself beloved by him.

Leslie found herself, for the first time in her life, a person of
importance with Aunt Annie, too. The social leader found time to advise
her little niece in the new contingencies that were perpetually arising,
lent Leslie her private secretary for the expeditious making of lists or
writing of notes, and bullied her own autocratic modiste into promising
at least half of the trousseau. It was Annie who decided that the
marriage must be at a certain Park Avenue church, and at a certain hour,
and that the reception at the house must be arranged in a certain
manner, and no other. Hendrick or Judge Lee would give away the bride,
Christopher would be his brother's best man, and Leslie would be given
time to greet her guests and change her gown and be driven to Alice's
house for just one kiss before she and Acton went away.

Acton had begged for an Easter wedding, but Leslie, upon her aunt's
advice, held out for June. If the war was over by that time--and
everyone said it must be, for so hideous a combat could not possibly
last more than six or eight months--then they would go to England and
the Continent, but otherwise they might drift through Canada to the
Pacific Coast, and even come back by San Francisco and the newly opened
Canal.

Meanwhile, Annie entertained her niece royally and untiringly. Formal
dinners to old family friends must come first, but when spring arrived
Leslie was promised house parties and yachting trips more after her own
heart. The girl was so excited, so bewildered and tired, even after the
first two weeks, that she remained in bed until noon every day, and had
a young maid especially detailed to take her dressmaker's fittings for
her. But even so she lost weight, her cheeks burned and her eyes
glittered feverishly, and her voice took an unnaturally high key, her
speech a certain shallow quickness. Acton's undeviating adoration she
took with a pretty, spoile