d under her breath.

He half smiled.

"I am, if it's an insult to ask you to marry me."

There was no time for more. June came back then with her hands full of
samples, which she proceeded to stuff into Micky's pocket.

He submitted laughingly.

"Supposing I get run over!" he said resignedly. "People will think
I've been robbing a beauty shop."

"It will be a fine advertisement for me, anyway," June declared.
"Can't you see all the halfpenny papers coming out with great
headlines? Tragic Death of a Young Millionaire! Pockets Stuffed with
June Mason's Skin Food!" She laughed merrily. "That would be worth
something, eh, Micky?"

"Heartless woman!" he answered. He turned to Esther. "Good-bye, Miss
Shepstone."

Esther was glad that he did not offer to shake hands with her; she was
glad that June went to see him off. As soon as the door had closed on
them she took her letter out again; she pressed the paper to her
lips.

It was worth waiting for, worth the heartache and disappointment; she
closed her eyes for a moment and thought of Raymond Ashton. How she
must have misjudged him in the past. It did not seem true now that
they had ever quarrelled, or parted in anger; that she had ever been
so unhappy that she did not want to live....

June came running up the stairs; she was singing cheerily; Esther
smiled as she listened ... it must be wonderful to be always as happy
and light-hearted as June.

"Well, dreamer?" said June. She shut the door with a little slam and
came over to where her friend sat. "A penny for your thoughts."

She looked at Esther's flushed face in the firelight.

"And so everything is all right after all, eh?" she asked.

Esther nodded.

"And I'm not really going to Mrs. Ashton's after all," she said with a
sort of shamefaced delight. "Only I didn't want to say so in front of
Mr. Mellowes.... Oh, aren't you glad?" she asked anxiously.

"My dear, of course I am!" said June heartily. "But for the life of me
I can't understand how it is that this man of yours has got such an
influence over you. He's only got to hold up his little finger and
you're on your knees. I'm beginning to think he must be a kind of
wonder after all."

Esther did not answer for a moment.

"No," she said. "He isn't at all wonderful, really, except to me,
and--and I love him, you see," she added shyly. "I suppose every man
is wonderful to the woman who loves him."

"Until she's his wife," said June tartly. "And th