"I wonder if he is very fond of that red-haired girl?" she asked her mirror. Contemplating such a possibility she experienced a pang of jealousy and hated herself for it. Jan Steppe came back from Paris on the eve of her birthday. He called at the house the next morning, before she was down, and interviewed Dr. Merville; when Beryl went in to breakfast, two little packages lay on her plate. The first was a diamond shawl pin. "You are a dear, daddy!" She went round the table and kissed him. "It is beautiful and I wanted one badly." She hurried back to her place. Perhaps Ronnie had remembered--? She picked up the card that was enclosed and read it. "Mr. Steppe?" Her father shot a quick glance at her. "Yes--bought it in Paris. He came in person to present it, but left when he found that you were not down--rather pretty." This was an inadequate description of the beautiful plaque that flashed and glittered from its velvet bed. "It is lovely," she said, but without warmth. "Ought I accept--it is a very expensive present!" "Why not? Steppe is a good friend of ours; besides, he likes you," said the doctor, not looking up from his plate. "He would be terribly hurt if you didn't take it--in fact, you cannot very well refuse." She ran through her letters. There was a note from Ronnie, an invitation to a first night. He said nothing about her birthday. "Oh, by the way, some flowers came. I told Dean to put them in your room. I have been puzzling my head to remember when I told him the date of your birthday. I suppose I must have done so, and, of course, he has the most colossal memory." "Who, father?" "Sault. He must have got up very early and gone to the market to get them. Very decent of him." She went out of the room with an excuse and found her maid in the pantry. She had filled a big bowl with the roses. There were so many that only room for half of them had been found. "The others I will put in the doctor's room, Miss," said the maid. "Put them all in my room, every one of them," demanded Beryl. She selected three and fastened them in her belt before she went back to the breakfast room. The doctor laughed. "I've never seen you wearing flowers before--Sault would be awfully pleased." This she knew. That was why she wore them. XI Evie Colebrook came home at an unusually early hour and the girl on the bed looked up in surprise. "I heard mother talking to somebody, but I had no idea it was you, Evie. What is the matter--has your swain another engagement?" "My swain, as you call him, is working tonight," said Evie, "and it is so hot that I thought I would come home and get into my pajamas." "Mother has been talking about your eccentric tastes, with particular reference to pajamas," said Christina. "She thinks that pajamas are indelicate. In her young days girls weren't supposed to have legs." "Father wore pajamas."