d, I confess, at the way she was joking. I don't mind a
bit being laughed at, but Miss Cullen knew, about as well as I, whom I
was talking about, and it seemed to me she was laughing at my love for
her. Under this impression I went on, "I suppose it is funny to you;
probably so many men have been in love with you that a man's love for
a woman has come to mean very little in your eyes. But out here we
don't make a joke of love, and when we care for a woman we care--well,
it's not to be put in words, Miss Cullen."

"I really didn't mean to hurt your feelings, Mr. Gordon," said Madge,
gently, and quite serious now. "I ought not to have tried to tease
you."

"There!" I said, my irritation entirely gone. "I had no right to lose
my temper, and I'm sorry I spoke so unkindly. The truth is, Miss
Cullen, the girl I care for is in love with another man, and so I'm
bitter and ill-natured in these days."

My companion stopped walking at the steps of 218, and asked, "Has she
told you so?"

"No," I answered. "But it's as plain as she's pretty."

Madge ran up the steps and opened the door of the car. As she turned
to close it, she looked down at me with the oddest of expressions, and
said--

"How dreadfully ugly she must be!"

CHAPTER X

WAITING FOR HELP

If ever a fellow was bewildered by a single speech, it was Richard
Gordon. I walked up and down that platform till I was called to
breakfast, trying to decide what Miss Cullen had meant to express,
only to succeed in reading fifty different meanings into her parting
six words. I wanted to think that it was her way of suggesting that
I deceived myself in thinking that there was anything between Lord
Ralles and herself; but, though I wished to believe this, I had seen
too much to the contrary to take stock in the idea. Yet I couldn't
believe that Madge was a coquette; I became angry and hot with myself
for even thinking it for a moment.

Puzzle as I did over the words, I managed to eat a good breakfast, and
then went into the Cullens' car and electrified the party by telling
them of Camp's and Fred's despatches, and how I had come to overhear
the former. Mr. Cullen and Albert couldn't say enough about my
cleverness in what had really been pure luck, and seemed to think I
had sat up all night in order to hear that telegram. The person for
whose opinion I cared the most--Miss Cullen--didn't say anything, but
she gave me a look that set my heart beating like a trip-ha