ets lots of actresses and smart people in, and they ask what it
is, and try a jar and send for more, and, there you are!"

Esther laughed.

"If she's too expensive----" she protested.

But she ended by paying much more than she had originally intended.
There was such a gem of a frock--black velvet and a white transparent
bodice.

"You look a duck!" June declared. "Doesn't she, Fifine?"

But the mirror told Esther how charming she really looked without any
further words.

"I really ought not to have spent so much," she said as they went
home. "But it is rather nice, isn't it?"

"Micky will be absolutely bowled over," June declared. "I shall have
to take a back seat all the evening."

And Micky apparently was "bowled over," judging by the look that crept
into his eyes when he arrived and found Esther alone in the
sitting-room.

June was late, as usual; she called out to him from her room that she
wouldn't be half a minute.

"There's no hurry," Micky answered quickly. He went over to where
Esther stood, a little flushed and shy in her new frock.

"It's very kind of you to come," he said rather agitatedly. She looked
up.

"It's very kind of you to ask me," she answered. She felt much more at
her ease with him now. She knew that she was looking particularly
pretty. "And it isn't the first time we have had dinner together, is
it?" she asked.

He answered eagerly that he was glad she remembered; he had almost
thought she must have forgotten.

"No, I shall never forget that, though it seems so long ago since that
night. I was unhappy then, but now...."

"But now?" he asked as she paused.

"Now everything has come right," she told him. "You said you were sure
it would, if you remember."

His face changed a little.

"I am glad I was such a good prophet," he said.

June came bustling in; she was flushed and breathless, and laden with
flowers, fan, and gloves, all of which she dropped to the sofa.

"I'm quite ready. Esther, where's my cloak? Do find it, there's an
angel. Oh, and my slippers--I've got everything else...."

But it was at least another ten minutes before they were in the taxi
and racing away through the night.

"I've booked a table at Marnio's," Micky said. "I hope you like
Marnio's, June?"

"I like anything to-night," she told him. "I'm going to enjoy myself
thoroughly, whatever happens."

Micky glanced at Esther.

"And you, Miss Shepstone?" he asked rather nervously.

"Esther's t