r and Diana chatted about the earliest date when Milly could
persuade her mother to sail for England. I longed to scream at them,
"Oh, you hard, unfeeling _wretches_!" But instead I stood outwardly
patient, a good, well-behaved young girl with a little mincing smile on
my face. Only the smile was frozen so hard you could have knocked it off
with a hammer.

We were going to Kitty Main's flat, which she called her "apartment,"
and the Dalziels were going to their house, but it was not to be a
regular parting. We were to dine with them (somehow the idea was borne
in upon me that dear Mrs. Dalziel wanted naughty, shilly-shallying Peggy
to see what lovely surroundings might be hers as Tony's wife); all of us
were to lunch next day at Delmonico's, as Kitty's guests; the Dalziels
were to motor us over to Long Island for a glimpse of their country
place there; and they were to see us off on the _Mauretania_. But that
would not be until five days had passed. Meanwhile, there would be time
for telegrams and even letters from El Paso.

At last, after all the noisy planning of things to do, the two parties
contrived to tear themselves from one another, and we got away from the
wonderful station in Mrs. Main's motor car, which had come to meet us--a
most impressive motor car which needed only a coronet or at worst a
crest, on its door. Perhaps, however, judging from present signs, that
lack might be supplied later.

Her "apartment" was in a marvellously ornate sky-scraper; a huge brown
block like a plum cake for a Titan tea party, which would have made
Buckingham Palace or any other royal residence in Europe look a toy. It
was in the highest story, according to Kitty the most desirable, because
you had all the air there and none of the noise; just like living on a
mountain, with a lift to the top. I wondered what she would think of
poor old Ballyconal, when she came to see it!

The first thing I did was to wire my temporary address to Tony, and hate
myself because I hadn't done it before. Until I met Father and Di I
didn't know where we were to stay in New York, for everything had been
settled through letters and telegrams, with as little useful information
as possible. If I had remembered in Chicago that Tony had no idea where
I would be in New York, there need have been no more delay in my getting
the news. But something seemed to be strangely wrong at his end of the
line, for even when there had been time for him to get my tel