re not in jail. I consider that the best of good fortune."

"Give me your card," said I.

She gave me the card, and I put it with mine.

"Why do you do that?"

"Perhaps I want to bring about an enchantment,"--soberly.

"As Signor Fantoccini, or as Mr. Comstalk?"

"I have long since resigned my position in the museum; it was too
exciting."

She made no rejoinder; and for some time there was no sound but the
music of the bells.

Finally we drew up under the colonial porte-cochere of Hollywood Inn
and were welcomed by the genial Moriarty himself, his Celtic
countenance a mirror of smiles.

"Anything in the house to eat?" I cried, shaking the robes from me.

"Anything ye like, if you like cowld things. I can hate ye a pot of
coffee on the gasolene-burner, and there's manny a vintage in the
cillars."

"That will be plenty!"--joyfully, helping Miss Hawthorne to alight.

"Sure, and ye are from the Hunt Club!"--noting our costumes. "Well,
well! They niver have anny too much grub. Now, I'll putt ye in a
little room all be yersilves, with a windy and a log-fire; cozy as ye
plaze. Ye'll have nearly two hours to wait for the car-r from the
village."

We entered the general assembly-room. It was roomy and quaint, and
somewhere above us was the inevitable room in which George Washington
had slept. The great hooded fireplace was merry with crackling logs.
Casually I observed that we were not alone. Over yonder, in a shadowed
corner, sat two men, very well bundled up, and, to all appearances,
fast asleep. Moriarty lighted a four-branched candelabrum and showed
us the way to the little private dining-room, took our orders, and left
us.

"This is romance," said I. "They used to do these things hundreds of
years ago, and everybody had a good time."

"It is now all very wicked and improper," murmured the girl, laying
aside her domino for the first time; "but delightful! I now find I
haven't the least bit of remorse for what I have done."

In that dark evening gown she was very beautiful. Her arms and
shoulders were tinted like Carrara marble; and I knew instantly that I
was never going to recover. I drew two chairs close to the grate. I
sat down in one and she in the other. With a contented sigh she rested
her blue-slippered feet on the brass fender.

[Illustration: With a contented sigh she rested her blue-slippered feet
on the brass fender.]

"My one regret is that I haven't any shoes. What an adv