Gillespie's launch was ready when we reached the pier, and after he had handed her into it he plucked my sleeve, and held me for an instant. "Don't you see how wrong you are! She is superb! She is not only the most beautiful girl in the world, but the dearest, the sweetest, the kindest and best. You have served me better than you know, old man, and I'm grateful!" In a moment they were well under way and I ran back to the club-house and found Rosalind where I had left her. "We must go at once," she said. "Father will be very anxious to know how it all came out." "But what did you think of Buttons?" "He's very nice," she said. "Is that all? It doesn't seem conclusive, some way!" "Oh, he's very kind and gentle, and anxious to please. But I felt like a criminal all the time." "You seemed to be a very cheerful criminal. I suppose it was only the excitement that kept you going." "Of course that was it! I was wondering what to call it. I'm afraid the Sisters at the convent would have a less pleasant word for it." "Well, you are not in school now; and I think we have done a good night's work for everybody concerned. But tell me, did he make love acceptably?" "I suppose that was what he was doing, sir," she replied demurely, averting her head. "Suppose?" I laughed. "Yes; you see, it was my first experience. And he is really very nice, and so honest and kind and gentle that I felt sorry for him." "Ah! You were sorry for him! Then it's all over, I'm clear out of it. When a woman is sorry for a man--tchk! But tell me, how did his advances compare with mine on those occasions when we met over there by St. Agatha's? I did my best to be entertaining." "Oh, he is much more earnest than you ever could be. I never had any illusions about you, Mr. Donovan. You just amuse yourself with the nearest girl, and, besides, for a long time you thought I was Helen. Mr. Gillespie is terribly in earnest. When he was talking to me back there in the corner I didn't remember at all that it was he who drove a goat-team in Central Park to rebuke the policeman!" "No; I suppose with the stage properly set,--with the music and the stars and the water,--one might forget Mr. Gillespie's mild idiosyncrasies." "But you haven't told me about Helen. Of course she saw through the trick at once." "She did," I answered, in a tone that caused Rosalind to laugh. "Well, you wouldn't hurt poor little me if she scolded you!" We were on the pier, and I whistled to Ijima to bring up the launch. In a moment we were skimming over the lake toward the Tippecanoe. Arthur Holbrook was waiting for us in the creek. "It is all right," I said. "I shall keep the papers for the present, if you don't mind, but your troubles are nearly over." And I left Rosalind laughingly explaining to her father how it came about that she had gone to the casino in a scarlet cloak but had returned in a blue one. CHAPTER XXII MR. GILLESPIE'S DIVERSIONS