ith delight.

"It must be a gift from----" he began, and then laid it down again,
though his gaze continued fixed upon it. "How did it gom in?" he mused.
"Ach! she most have brought it herself. How vary nice!"

He turned suddenly and met his friend's humorous eyes.

"I shall be faithful, Bonker! You can trust me!" he exclaimed; "I shall
put it in my letter to Alicia, and send it mit my love! See, Bonker!"

He took a letter from his desk--its envelope still open--hurriedly
slipped in the white heather, and licked the gum while his resolution
was hot. Then, having exhibited this somewhat singular evidence of his
constancy, he sighed again.

"It vas ze only safe vay," he said dolefully. "Vas I not right, Bonker?"

"Quite, my dear Baron," replied the Count sympathetically. "Believe me,
I appreciate your self-sacrifice. In fact, it was to relieve the strain
upon your too generous heart that I immediately accepted Mr. Maddison's
invitation for to-morrow."

"How so?" demanded the Baron with perhaps excusable surprise.

"You will be able to decide at once which is the most suitable bride for
Tulliwuddle, and then, if you like, we can leave in a day or two."

"Bot I do not vish to leave so soon!"

"Well then, while you stay, you can at least make sure that you are
engaging the affections of the right girl."

Though Bunker spoke with an air of desiring merely to assist his friend,
the speech seemed to arouse some furious thinking in the Baron's mind.

For some moments he made no reply, and then at last, in a troubled
voice, he said--

"I have already a leetle gommitted Tollyvoddle to Eva. Ach, bot not
moch! Still it vas a leetle. Miss Maddison--vat is she like?"

To the best of his ability the Count sketched the charms of Eleanor
Maddison--her enthusiasm for large and manly noblemen, and the probable
effects of the Baron's stalwart form set off by the tartan which (in
deference, he declared, to the Wraith's injunctions) he now invariably
wore. Also, he touched upon her father's colossal fortune, and the
genuine Tulliwuddle's necessities.

The Baron listened with growing interest.

"Vell," he said, "I soppose I most make a goot impression for ze sake of
Tollyvoddle. For instance, ven we drive up----"

"Drive? my dear Baron, we shall march! Leave it to me; I have a very
pretty design shaping in my head."

"Aha!" smiled the Baron; "my showman again, eh?"

His expression sobered, and he added as a final contribu