transformation scene could scarcely be imagined.

When Nan had passed he turned to speak to Harriet and she had gone. He
felt a moment's pain at the disappointment, but before he could find
her the music ceased, the dancers paused and the swaying of the crowd
made his search vain.

A soft hand was suddenly laid on his arm, and he turned to confront
Nan, her eyes flashing with triumph, her cheeks flushed, and her lips
parted in a tender smile.

"Well?" she asked in low tones.

"You're a magician, Nan," he answered with enthusiasm.

"Come, I'm going to honour you by sitting out the next two dances, and
if you're very good, perhaps more."

When she had seated herself by his side under a bower of roses he was
very still for a moment. She looked up with a quizzical expression and
said:

"A penny for your thoughts? Am I so very wicked after all?"

Stuart crossed his long legs and looked at her admiringly.

"I'll be honest," he said with deliberation. "I don't think I have ever
seen anything more dazzlingly beautiful than your banquet and ball,
except----"

"Except what!" she interrupted sharply.

"Except the woman who conceived and executed it."

"That's better, but you must give the credit to the artists I hired."

"In a measure, yes; but their plans were submitted for your approval. I
was just wondering whether your imagination was vivid enough to have
dreamed half the splendours of such a life when you turned from the
little cottage I built for you."

A look of pain clouded the fair face and she lifted her jewelled hand.

"Please, Jim, I'd like to forget some things."

"And you haven't forgotten?"

She looked straight into his eyes and answered in even tones.

"No."

He studied the magnificent pearl necklace that circled her throat. Its
purchase had made a sensation in New York. The papers were full of it
at the time Bivens had bought it at an auction in Paris, bidding
successfully against the agents of the Tzar of Russia. Never had he
seen Nan so ravishing. Magnificent gowns, soft laces, and jewelry were
made to be worn by such women. There was an eternal fitness in the
whole scheme of things in which this glorious creature of the senses
lived and moved and had her being.

"I suppose," he began musingly, "I ought, as a patriotic citizen of the
Republic, to condemn the enormous waste of wealth you have made here
to-night."

"Yes," she answered quietly.

"I ought to tell you how many tears you