fully.

"Well, now," said the captain, as he shook hands, "that pink becomes
her, don't it?"

Miss Matthews blushed. "Betty fixed it."

"I always did like bright things on wimmen," said the captain,
earnestly, "and I like that pink."

"Of course you do," said Betty; "all men like pink, except those who
like blue, and now you must go away, for I've got to put my patient to
bed."

"Don't you cook anything for her," said the captain, as he backed out
of the door, his eyes still gloating over the rosy-beribboned lady on
the hearth-rug. "I'll bring you over a bowl of hot chowder to-night, and
if there's anything else you want, you just let me know."

"Delia will look out for the other things," said Betty; "she's going to
send little Jane to help me. But we shall be very glad to have the
chowder."

With Miss Matthews asleep at last, Bettina sat down to write a note to
Justin.

It was very brief, and began abruptly:

"I am going to tell Anthony. I lay awake all night and thought it out.
It wouldn't be fair for me to marry him--unless he knew. I'd get to be
just a shivery shadow, Justin, afraid that he would find that I didn't
love him--that I loved somebody else.

"But I can never tell him with his grave eyes watching me, so I'm going
to write, now--to-night. It almost seems as if poor Letty had been made
a sort of instrument of Providence so that I could be here at this time.
I couldn't stay at Diana's with everything over between me--and Anthony.

"Oh, Justin, will he ever want to be friends with us again? Will Diana
ever forgive us?

"I wish you were here. Yet you mustn't be here--not until everything
is settled. Somehow I don't dare think that we can ever be happy. It
doesn't seem right to think of it, does it?

"_But I love you._"

She gave her note to the little captain when he came with the chowder.

He brought something beside the chowder. In a square box, smelling of
sandalwood, was an exquisite kimono of palest pink crepe, embroidered
with wisteria blossoms.

"It has been lying in an old trunk for years," he exulted, as he shook
it out before her delighted eyes. "When I saw her," he nodded toward the
door of the inner room, "when I saw her with that pink ribbon in her
hair, it just came to me how nice it would be if she had a wrapper or
somethin' to go with it. And after I got home I went rummagin' around
until I found this."

"It's lovely," said Bettina; "she'll be simply crazy over it, captai