etail to Captain March. I was afraid he might think the corporal's
stripe had been ill-bestowed, but one must draw the straight line of
truth somewhere!

CHAPTER III

Next morning when Di came back, I told her what was necessary to tell,
and not a bit more. I explained how I had met Captain Eagleston March,
and how we had spent the day and the heavenly evening. But first, I let
her open the invitation which had just come by hand from the American
Embassy (she opens all Father's letters, except those that have a
repulsively private look), and when she began, "I wonder how on
earth----," I was able to work my story in neatly, as an explanation.

Di listened to the end, without interrupting me once except by opening
her eyes very wide, and now and then raising her eyebrows, or giving
vent to expressive sighs. I saw that she was thinking hard as I went on,
and I knew what she was thinking: about the need of forgiving me because
of the new interest in life my naughtiness had brought her.

When I had finished up the tale with our dinner at the Savoy, and seeing
"Milestones," and then on top of all, having supper with Mrs. Jewitt and
Captain March at a terribly respectable but fascinating night club of
which he had been made a member, Diana didn't scold. She said that
Captain March being an officer and a flying man made all the difference,
but she hoped I would not have put myself into such a position with any
other sort of man, whether he mistook me for a child or not. Even as it
was, she wouldn't dare tell Father the history of my day: but, as they
had made several American acquaintances lately, she could easily account
for the Embassy invitation.

"We'll go, of course, won't we?" I catechized her, knowing that her word
with Father was pretty well law.

"Yes, we'll go," she answered. "I'll write an acceptance and send it by
hand."

I was so enchanted at this that I dashed up to my room and began
shortening the new dress. I had mentioned it vaguely to Di, but it was
the one part of my story in which she took no interest. I saw how the
keenness died out of her beautiful sea-blue eyes, and how her soul
retired comfortably behind them, to think of something else, just as you
see people walk away from windows through which they've been looking
out, leaving them emptily blank. As she didn't care what little Peggy
wore, little Peggy decided to give her a surprise at the last moment.
Nothing much was said about the E