lying down to Florida at
an hour's notice. I think some explanation is due you--if it wouldn't
bore you?"

"Tell me," she said, quietly.

"Why, then, it's that headlong idiot of a brother of mine," he
explained. "He's going to try to marry a girl he has only known
twenty-four hours--a girl we never heard of. And I'm on my way to stop
it!--the young fool!--and I'll stop it if I have to drag him home by the
heels! Here's the telegram we got late this afternoon--a regular
bombshell." He drew the yellow bit of paper from his breast-pocket,
unfolded it, and read:

"'ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA.

"'I am going to marry to-morrow the loveliest girl in the United
States. Only met her yesterday. Love at first sight. You'll all
worship her! She's eighteen, a New-Yorker, and her name is Marie
Hetherford. JIM.'"

He looked up angrily. "What do you think of that?" he demanded.

"Think?" she stammered--"think?" She dropped her hands helplessly,
staring at him. "Marie Hetherford is my sister!" she said.

"Your--sister," he repeated, after a long pause--"_your_ sister!"

She pressed a white hand to her forehead, clearing her eyes with a
gesture.

"Isn't it too absurd!" she said, dreamily. "My sister sent us a telegram
like yours. Our parents are abroad. So my brother and I threw some
things into a trunk and--and started! Oh, did you _ever_ hear of
anything like this?"

"Your sister!" he repeated, dazed. "_My_ brother and _your_ sister. And
I am on my way to stop it; and you are on your way to stop it--"

She began to laugh--not hysterically, but it was not a natural laugh.

"And," he went on, "I've lost another sister in the shuffle, and you've
lost another brother in the shuffle, and now there's a double-shuffle
danced by you and me--"

"Don't. _Don't!_" she said, faint from laughter.

"Yes, I will," he said. "And I'll say more! I'll say that Destiny is
taking exclusive charge of our two families, and it would not surprise
me if _your_ brother and _my_ sister were driving around New York
together at this moment looking for us!"

Their laughter infected the entire dining-car; every waiter snickered;
the _enfant terrible_ grinned; the aged minister of the Church of
England beamed a rapid fire of benedictions on them.

But they had forgotten everybody except each other.

"From what I hear and from what I know personally of your family,