"Look here, Cissy," he said in tremulous tones, "we absolutely _can't_ go into the courtyard of the Grand Hotel like this! Now, if you will be a good girl, and will stop this instant, I will drive you up the Rue de la Paix, and there I will buy----!" "_What?_" said Cissy, looking up with eyes that still brimmed ready for action. "A gold bracelet!" said her father tentatively, but still quite uncertain of his effect. "Boohoo!" said Cissy Carter, dropping her face once more between her hands. "Goodness gracious," cried the Colonel, invoking his favorite divinity, "what can the girl want? A gold watch, then?" "Real gold this time, then!" said Cissy, who had been "had" once before, and, even with an aching heart, was properly cautious. "You shall do the choosing yourself!" said her father, thinking that he had conquered. But Cissy knew her opportunity--and the relative whom fate had given her. The tears welled again. Her bosom was shaken by timely sobs. "Well, what then, Celia--really, this becomes past bearing! Why, we are nearly at the hotel!" Cissy glanced up quickly. "A gold bracelet _with_ a gold watch, then!" she sighed gently. And this is the truth, and the whole truth, as to why Colonel Davenant Carter gave his arm to a radiant and beautiful daughter in the courtyard of the Grand Hotel--a daughter, also, who lifted up a prettily-gloved hand (twelve buttons), and at every fourth step _looked at the time_! XXIV CISSY'S MEANNESS Miss Cecilia Davenant Carter had been at home a good many weeks before she came to see me. Of course Hugh John was now at college, and doubtless that made a difference. But she had never stayed away so long before, and whatever reason Cissy might have to be angry with Master Hugh John, she had not the least right to take it out on ME! However, she came at last--chiefly, I think, to show me the gold watch on her wrist. This she wanted so badly to do that it must have hurt her dreadfully to stay away as long as she did. So she sat fingering it, but not running to ask me to admire it, as a girl naturally does. Of course I took no notice, though it made me feel mean. We talked about the woods and the autumn tints (schoolgirls always like these two words--they remind them that it is the season for blackberries and jam), till at last I was thoroughly ashamed of myself. So I went over to Cissy, and said, "I think that's the prettiest bracelet I ever saw in all my life!" And she said, "Do you?" looking up at me funnily. "Do you really?" she repeated the words, looking straight at me. "Yes, I do indeed!" I answered. And--what do you think?--the next moment she was crying on my shoulder! Of course I understood. Every girl will, without needing to be told. And as for men (and "Old Cats"), it is no use attempting to explain to them. They never could know just how we two felt.