rom Miss Randolph was handed to me. It contained a wire from Aunt
Mary, saying that she and Jimmy would not leave their present quarters,
on account of the storm. I sent word to have the carriage stopped, and
luckily for the driver the message was just in time. Then it struck me
that in the circumstances I had better put up at another hotel for the
night. I made all arrangements, had my bag taken over to a little
commercial sort of house near by, and left myself just twenty minutes to
bathe and change. Gladstone could do it in five, I've been told. But it
was all I could manage in fifteen, for I had decided to do myself well,
not to shame my dinner-companion.

Thanks to my little trick of going to a different hotel from the party
when we are stopping anywhere longer than one night, I can always
indulge in civilised garb of an evening therefore in the dressing-case,
which is my little all on the car, I carry something decent. Our mutual
tailor, Montie, is not to be despised; and when I'd got into my pumps
and all my things, I don't think there was much amiss.

I arrived at our rendezvous--the hall of the hotel--just one minute
before the appointed time; and five minutes later I saw Her coming
downstairs.

I have sometimes caught a glimpse of her in the evenings, dressed for
dinner at good hotels, and her frocks are like herself, always the most
perfect. To-night she had no luggage except a bag I had carried,
nevertheless she had somehow achieved a costume in which she was a
vision. Perhaps if I were a woman I should have seen that she had on her
day-skirt, with an evening bodice, but being merely a man over his ears
in love, I can only tell you that the effect was dazzling. In admiration
of her I forgot my own transformation until I saw her pretty eyebrows go
up with surprise.

I felt my heart thump behind my rather jolly white waistcoat. On the
second step from the bottom she stopped and exclaimed, "Why, Brown, how
nice you look! You're exactly like a----" There she stopped, getting
deliciously pink, as if she'd been a naughty child pinched by a
"grown-up" in the midst of a malapropos remark. I could fill up the
blank for myself, and was highly complimented by her opinion that I was
"exactly like a gentleman." I explained that the clothes were Mr.
Winston's, and had been donned with a highly laudable motive. It was
evident that she approved both cause and effect; and we went in to
dinner together.

I can't describ