sses without a murmur of protest. It was not
until he made a movement to tear off her mask (whose depending fringe
was a great inconvenience) that she suddenly recovered her senses:
with a startled cry she stayed his hand, cast a shy glance about her,
jumped up and ran as fast as her feet could carry her. If she had been
a real fairy, she could not have made a more rapid and unexpected
exit. Grover was utterly dumbfounded. He thought of the old legends
about knights who had been loved by mermaids whose kiss was death and
their embrace eternal damnation. An uncanny feeling crept over him.
But a cheerful second thought soon came to comfort him. He had heard
from the best authorities that women were enigmatical and incalculable
creatures who were most apt to do what was least expected of them.
They had a perfect encyclopedia of eccentricities, if the novelists
were to be trusted, and it was not to be expected that his brief
acquaintance with the sex should have sufficed to master it. This was
a profitable train of thought and one well worth pursuing. Therefore,
instead of pursuing his nymph, he leaned back against the wall and
pondered.

The nymph, in the meanwhile, after a hurried search below, ran to the
dressing-room, where she flung herself weeping into the arms of the
black domino.

"What in Heaven's name is the matter, child?" inquired the latter.
"Was he rude to you?"

"Not at all," sobbed the nymph; "no-o-ot a-a-at all. Quite the
co-o-on-tra-ry."

"What then are you crying for?" asked the domino sympathetically.

"He kissed me, mother; he kissed me," answered the nymph, weeping.

"You ought not to have allowed him to do that," said the Frau
Professorin, with mild reproach.

"How could I help it, mother? He talked so beautifully to me. He
proposed to me. And I forgot that I was Miss Jones. I was only
myself--and--"

A second flood of tears made the rest unintelligible.

"Are you sure he proposed to you, child?" queried the mother, after a
pause.

"Quite sure, mother."

"But then he must have known you. For why should he propose to Miss
Jones, to whom he is already engaged?"

"That is what makes me so unhappy, mother, for now I shall never know
whether I am engaged to him or not."

"Leave that to me, child. I'll find out."

V.

The next day Grover had an accident, which cost him upward of $200. He
mixed something or other, which made a terrific racket and smashed no
en