"Old Hal!" he muttered. "Well, who would have thought it! And not a word to me about it, the secretive old duffer!" He held out his hand to me. "Congratulations, Barbara," he said heartily. "Since you absolutely refuse me, you couldn't do better. He's the finest chap I know. If it's Valentine the family is kicking up such a row about, you leave it to me. I'll tell them a few things." I was stunned. Would anybody have believed it? To pick a name out of the air, so to speak, and off a malted milk tablet, and then to find that it actually belonged to some one--was sickening. "It may not be the one you know" I said desperately. "It--it's a common name. There must be plenty of Valentines." "Sure there are, lace paper and cupids--lots of that sort. But there's only one Harold Valentine, and now you've got him pinned to the wall! I'll tell you what I'll do, Barbara. I'm a real friend of yours. Always have been. Always will be. The chances are against the family letting him get this letter. I'll give it to him." "GIVE it to him?" "Why, he's here. You know that, don't you? He's in town over the holidays." "Oh, no!" I said in a gasping Voice. "Sorry," he said. "Probably meant it as a surprise to you. Yes, he's here, with bells on." He then put the letter in his pocket before my very eyes, and sat down on the corner of the writing table! "You don't know how all this has relieved my mind," he said. "The poor chap's been looking down. Not interested in anything. Of course this explains it. He's the sort to take Love hard. At college he took everything hard--like to have died once with German measles." He picked up a book, and the charred picture was underneath. He pounced on it. "Pounced" is exactly the right word. "Hello!" he said, "family again, I suppose. Yes, it's Hal, all right. Well, who would have thought it!" My last hope died. Then and there I had a nervous chill. I was compelled to prop my chin on my hand to keep my teeth from chattering. "Tell you what I'll do," he said, in a perfectly cheerful tone that made me cold all over. "I'll be the cupid for your Valentine. See? Far be it from me to see love's young dream wiped out by a hardhearted family. I'm going to see this thing through. You count on me, Barbara. I'll arrange that you get a chance to see each other, family or no family. Old Hal has been looking down his nose long enough. When's your first party?" "Tomorrow night," I gasped out. "Very well. Tomorrow night it is. It's the Adams', isn't it, at the Club?" I could only nod. I was beyond speaking. I saw it all clearly. I had been wicked in deceiving my dear family and now I was to pay the penalty. He would know at once that I had made him up, or rather he did not know me and therefore could not possibly be in Love with me. And what then? "But look here," he said, "if I take him there as Valentine, the family will be on, you know. We'd better call him something else. Got any choice as to a name?"