"I never meant to say good-bye 'in an ordinary way,'" he said cheerfully, "whatever your intentions were! And, of course, I'll manage to come to town for a day or two, if you find you really want me. Fred would be glad to help me out for that long, I'm sure. On the other hand, if it's a relief to be rid of me for a while, and New York looks pretty good to you, don't hurry back--you've been away for a whole year, remember. I'll understand." In spite of his cheerful words and matter-of-course manner, Austin stood watching the train go out with a heavy heart. He was very sincere in feeling that his presumption had been great, and that he had taken advantage of feelings which mere youth and loneliness might have awakened in Sylvia, and from which she would recover as soon as she was with her own friends again. And yet he loved her so dearly that it was hard--even though he acknowledged that it was best--to let her go back to the world by whose standards he felt he fell short in every way. "If I lose her," he said to himself, "I must remember that--of course I ought to. King Cophetua and the beggar maid makes a very pretty story--but it doesn't sound so well the other way around. And then she's given me such a tremendous amount already--if I never get any more, I must be thankful for that." Sally spent a rapturous week in New York, and came home with her modest trousseau all bought and glowing accounts of the good times she had had. "The very first thing Sylvia did, the morning after we got there," she said, "was to buy a new limousine and hire a man to run it. My, you ought to see it! It's lined with pearl gray, and Sylvia keeps a gold vase with orchids--fresh ones every day--in it! She helped me choose all my things, and I never could have got half so much for my money, or had half such pretty things if she hadn't; and she began right off to get the most _elegant_ clothes for herself, too! I knew Sylvia was pretty, but I never knew _how_ pretty until I saw her in a low-necked white dress! We went to the theatre almost every evening, and saw all the sights, besides--it didn't take long to get around in that automobile, I can tell you! Perfect rafts of people kept coming to see her all the time, telling her how glad they were to see her back, and teasing her to do things with them. I bet she'll get married again in no time--there were _dozens_ of men, all awfully rich and attractive and apparently just _crazy_ about her! We went out twice to lunch, and once to dinner, at the grandest houses I ever even imagined, and every one was lovely to me, too, but of course it was only Sylvia they really cared about. I was about wild, I got so excited, but it didn't make any more impression on Sylvia than water rolling off a duck's back--she didn't seem the least bit different from when she was here, helping mother wash the supper dishes, and teaching Austin French. She took it all as a matter of course. I guess we