"Well, Teddy is a good catch, if I do say it myself, for he is a real good boy, and very rich. His wife, if he ever gets one, will have a happy life; and I hope he will soon marry, for that would cure him of his little fads." "Fads?" observed Kathleen, inquiringly. "Yes," replied her new friend; "he is full of them. Some time ago it was to be an author, and I believe he wrote up whole reams of foolscap in the six weeks while the fever lasted. He came here every day, bringing dozens of pages of the thrilling romance over which he had been wasting the midnight oil. Finally he sent it off to a publisher, and a prompt rejection cooled his ardor. Now his fad is to be an actor." "An actor?" Kathleen exclaimed. Her thoughts flew with exquisite pain to Ralph Chainey--so beloved and so false! "He has been stage-struck ever since he saw Ralph Chainey act last winter," continued the communicative hostess. "He tells me now that he is studying to go upon the stage, but I'm sure he will fail. He will certainly have stage-fright." "I hope not," answered Kathleen; and then the gentle lady tucked her kindly into bed as if she had been a little child. "Good-night, my dear," she said, with a kiss, and then she went away, saying she must go down-stairs and see Teddy Darrell. He was waiting for her alone. The children who had been amusing him, had gone off to bed, and he settled himself for a long, confidential chat. From his talk she soon learned that his love of a year ago for bonny Kathleen had revived with fuller intensity than ever. "Cousin Carrie, I'm bound to marry that girl!" he exclaimed, with sparkling eyes. "But she rejected you last winter, Teddy." "I know; but everything is different now. She was a belle and heiress then; now she is poor, and friendless but for us. When she learns that I love her in spite of her changed position, and that I want to marry her as soon as she will have me, she will be touched by the romance of the affair, and--now don't laugh so, Cousin Carrie--it _is_ romantic, is it not, my devotion?" "Certainly," she agreed, merrily; then added: "But I'm afraid you will find it hard to convince her of your devotion; for she told me when I spoke of it just now that you had proposed to Helen Fox the very week after she rejected you." Teddy made a grimace. "Oh, that was all fun, and I think it was very shabby in Helen telling all the other girls about it. Of course, I only wanted the engagement for a few weeks, then to pique her and get discarded, as I've done with other, girls," he said, carelessly, having a very elastic conscience in matters of love. But he added, rather lugubriously: "But I'm in earnest, Carrie, with Kathleen Carew. Positively, she is the only girl I ever loved in my life--that is, real, sure enough love--and it will break my heart if I don't get her for my wife." "You didn't break your heart when you believed that she was dead," his cousin reminded him, cynically.