ing of Mr. March?"

"Yes, I've guessed why he's stayed behind."

"Have you? That's quick work--for a man."

"It looks to-day as if he were out of the game, doesn't it?"

The lady mused. This time the husband twinkled:

"If he is, my dear, whom should we congratulate: all three or which
two?"

"I don't know yet, my love. Wait. Wait till we've tried her in Boston."

At this hour John March was imperatively engrossed by an unforseen
discovery. Tossing on his bed the night before, he had decided not to
telegraph to Suez for money until he had searched all the hotels for
some one from Dixie who would exclaim, "Why, with the greatest
pleasure," or words to that effect. In the morning he was up betimes and
off on this errand, asking himself why he had not done it the evening
before, but concluding he must have foreborne out of respect for the
Sabbath.

At the first hotel his search had no reward. But in the second he found
a Pulaski City man, whose acquaintance he had never previously prized,
yet from whom he now hid four-fifths of his surprised delight and still
betrayed enough to flatter the fellow dizzy. John took him back to his
own hotel for breakfast, made sure he had only to ask a loan to get it,
and let him go at last, unable to get the request through his own teeth.

He went to a third hotel, but found only strangers. Then he went to a
fourth, explored its rotunda in vain, turned three or four leaves of its
register, and was giving a farewell glance to the back page, when he
started with surprise.

"I see," he said to the clerk, "I see you have--will you kindly look
this way a moment? Are these persons still with you?"

"They are, sir," said the clerk, gazing absently beyond him, and took
March's card. "Front! I'll have to send it to the lady, sir; Colonel
Ravenel's sick. What? Oh, well, sir, if _you_ think pneumonia's
slight--Yes, sir, that's what he's got." He was turning away
contemptuously, but John said:

"Oh!--eh--one moment more, if you please."

"Well, sir, what is it?" The man gave his ear instead of his eye; but he
gave both eyes, as John giving both his, asked deferentially:

"Do you own all the hotels in this town, sir, or are you merely a clerk
of this one?"

The card went, and a bell-boy presently led the way to Fannie's door. It
stood unlatched. The boy pushed it ajar, and John met only his frowning
image reflected full length in the mirror-front of a folding-bed, until
a door opened