"Now I'm packed--in half an hour--and waiting for Mona. The boat sails about three A.M.; I don't even know her name: we'll be on her by midnight. Poor Miss O'Neill is flabbergasted--and so I'm afraid will you be, and Phil and Jimmy. I know it isn't kind of me simply to vanish like this; but try to feel that I don't mean to be unkind. Not even to Togo, though my treachery to him is villainous. It will be a black mark against me in Peter's book forever. But I can't take him, Ambo; I just can't. Please, please--will _you_? You see, dear, I can't help being a nuisance to you always, after all. And I can't even promise you Togo will learn to love you, any more than Tumps--though I hope he may. He'll grieve himself thin at first. He knows something's in the air and he's grieving beside me now. His eyes---- If Mona doesn't come soon, I may collapse at his paws and promise him to stay. "Mona talks of a year over there, from darkest Russia to lightest France; possibly two. Her plans are characteristically indefinite. She knows heaps of people all over, of course. I'll write often. Please tell Hadow and Mr. Sampson I'm a physical wreck--or mental, if it sounds more convincing. I'm neither; but I'm tired--tired--_tired_. "If you can possibly help Phil and Jimmy to understand---- "Here's Mona now. Good-by, dear. "Your ashamed, utterly grateful "SUSAN. "P. S. I'm wearing your furs." THE SIXTH CHAPTER I SO Togo and I went home. My misery craving company, I rode with him all the way up in the baggage-car, on the self-deceptive theory that he needed an everpresent friend. It is true, however, that he did; and it gratified me and a little cheered me that he seemed really to appreciate my attentions. I sat on a trunk, lighting each cigarette from the end of the last, and he sat at my feet, leaned wearily against the calf of my right leg and permitted me to fondle his ears.... II