h our talk now," says Gertrude; and
the delighted child flies to her mother's arms.

The gentlemen return presently. Floyd Grandon takes his little girl on
his knee, while Violet puts both hands in the professor's and gives him
perhaps the sweetest congratulation he will have. Then he wishes to
explain matters to Mrs. Grandon and have a betrothal. This all occurs
while Violet is putting Cecil to bed. Jane waits upon her young
mistress, but the good-night kiss and the tucking up in the soft
blanket must be Violet's, and to-night the story is reluctantly
deferred.

She finds Mrs. Grandon in the drawing-room when she enters it,
dignified and composed, showing in her face none of the elation she
feels. For she is amazed and triumphant that this famous gentleman,
whose name is the golden key to the most exclusive portals of society,
should choose her faded, querulous Gertrude. How much of it is due to
Violet she will never know, nor the professor either; but it is Violet
who has raised Gertrude up to a new estate out of her old slough of
despond, who in her own abundant sweetness and generosity has so
clothed the other that she has seemed charming even in the sadness of
an apathetical life. Everything is amicably settled. Gertrude does not
care for the betrothal party, but to Mrs. Grandon it has a stylish and
unusual aspect, and the world can then begin to talk of the engagement.

Violet is strangely perturbed that night. Visions of ill-fated Romeo
and Juliet haunt her thoughts. Then she wonders if Gertrude has quite
forgotten that old love. Perhaps it would be foolish to let it stand up
in ghostly remembrance when something fond and strong and comforting
was offered. But which of all these _is_ love? She is yet to learn its
Proteus shapes and disguises.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Nothing is courtesy unless it be meant friendly and lovingly.--BEN
JONSON.

The world is amazed that Prof. Freilgrath, the _savant_ and explorer,
is to take unto himself an American wife. The betrothal party at
Grandon Park excites much interest, and the few invited guests feel
highly honored. The press has received him and his book with the utmost
cordiality; the young women who read everything are wild over it and
talk glibly, though it is mostly Greek to them, but then he is the new
star and must be admired. Many of them envy Miss Grandon, and well they
may.

Gertrude is dressed in soft gray silk, with an abundance of illusion at
throat