she knew
to be an irksome duty could but win her respect.

In fact, she looked upon the result of her experiment with no little
pride. Each afternoon the two might be seen on the ball-room floor,
working away as if their lives depended upon it, with the Victrola
repeating over and over the same tunes which, except for her own
persistency, would have driven Edith mad. Always after the dancing
lesson they promenaded the hotel piazza "to cool off," and their joint
devotion to their undertaking was so assiduous that it became almost a
feature of the hotel life. Edith's triumph came when Merry was called in
to "assist" at one of the later lessons. Try as they would, Cosden and
his new partner were at odds in each effort they made to dance together,
while with Edith he succeeded passably well. In Cosden's mind there
could be but one explanation.

"I always thought she knew how to dance," he expressed it after Merry
left them alone. "How little you can judge of anything until you know
how to do it yourself!" And Edith, wise person that she was, did not
explain to him that this was the first time he had danced without her
guiding hand!

Cosden had become dependent upon his chief adviser in other ways than
dancing. He found her so sympathetic in listening to his problems and so
helpfully intelligent in discussing them that he gradually confided to
her more of his intimate affairs than he had ever shared with any one
else. Ostensibly, she was adviser only in his affair with Merry, but it
was a short step to extend her line of operations without having him
realize that she was exceeding her contract. She explained matters which
seemed subtle to him with such clearness, her counsels were so wise and
her criticisms so fearless that Cosden's admiration was profound.

"You are a bit severe, you know," he said to her one day; "but I like
it. The only reason I go to a specialist is because I know he
understands his subject better than I do, and so I swallow what he tells
me, hook, line and sinker. And you are a great success as an expert in
your line, Miss Stevens,--you're all right."

Whereupon Edith courtesied gracefully and answered demurely, "Thank you,
sir; I am glad I give satisfaction."

Thatcher and Cosden had carried the trolley proposition as far as lay
within their power, and awaited a response from the Bermuda government
before they could proceed. This threw Cosden back again upon his
original purpose, to which he clu