Pray forgive my thanking you for your long and very sensible letter and for becoming almost confidential, and believe me, with my very cordial regards to your aunt and brother, and my compliments, very sincerely yours. _Why do you let the Prince join you in Paris, I’d like to know?_ (Br-r-r-! Your letter made me shiver!) * * * * * TELEGRAM: POLLY TO A. D. _Leicestershire, October._ Can’t you stand a little teasing? * * * * * TELEGRAM: A. D. TO POLLY _Rome, October._ Not from you. Besides, letters are too short and you have been flirting. What’s more, you are meeting the Prince in Paris. That is what I don’t like. * * * * * TELEGRAM: POLLY TO A. D. _Leicestershire, October._ What can you expect when I haven’t seen you all these months? * * * * * TELEGRAM: A. D. TO POLLY _Rome, October._ More than I am getting. * * * * * TELEGRAM: POLLY TO A. D. _Leicestershire, October._ Aren’t you unreasonable? * * * * * TELEGRAM: A. D. TO POLLY _Rome, October._ I think not, under the circumstances. * * * * * TELEGRAM: POLLY TO A. D. _Leicestershire, October._ ? * * * * * TELEGRAM: A. D. TO POLLY _Rome, October._ ! * * * * * TELEGRAM: POLLY TO A. D. _Leicestershire, October._ . * * * * * _PART III_ _UNCERTAINTY_ CABLE FROM A. D. _Rome, November. Three weeks later._ Will you marry me? Uncertainty in our relations troubling me deeply. Where do I stand? Heaven or Hell? * * * * * CABLE FROM POLLY _New York, November._ Call it Heaven. * * * * * A. D. TO POLLY _Rome, November._ I do call it Heaven, or I would if only you were here. As it is, the doors are locked, for you are my golden key to happiness, to Paradise itself. It seems ages since your last letter came. Don’t play with me again, will you, dearest? Although your letters this summer have been so sweet, I know what a little Pagan you are. Sometimes I wonder if you have any conscience at all about me. If you have, I’ve not as yet discovered it, but--my heart is in your keeping. Mona Lisa has disappeared from my life. Of course your Aunt is set on your marrying the Prince. That has been plain all along,--how did he behave in Paris?--but you, my darling, _who_ could have guessed whether or not you were ready to make up your mind to settle down? So I delayed asking you to marry me--in so many words. But now that we have quarrelled, I long to make up and have everything settled. There is no peace left your lover till he knows that you love him, once and always. This letter is serious because, beneath it all, I am serious.