mattered now. Nels and Dorothy could go working and playing together through the future, but she must content herself to be wedded for life to her art; and such art—newspaper cartoons! While she thought she was dressing, for she was really very curious to see Gloria and hear what she had to say. The door of Gloria’s room was half open and Ruth knocked and went inside at the same moment. Gloria was fully dressed and seemed to be in the midst of packing. There were dark circles under her eyes as if she had not slept. “Ruth, I want you to do something for me,” was her abrupt greeting. Ruth waited for an explanation. “Will you?” “Of course, Gloria,—anything.” “I believe you would at that—you’re an awfully nice child; sometimes I suspect that you’re older than I am; but this is something rather nasty, so don’t be too sure that you’ll want to do it. I want you to tell Aggie that I can’t marry him—that I must have been insane when I said I would, that the whole thing is utterly impossible—that it would please me if he would go back to New York at once. I don’t want to see him any more.” Ruth struggled to conceal her joy at this announcement. “Don’t you think, Gloria, that it would be more effective if you told him yourself?” “No; and besides I don’t want to see the brute—he—he— Oh, I can’t bear to look at him—to remember everything—” “Suppose he doesn’t believe me?” “He will.” “You could write a note.” “Then he wouldn’t believe; a note would be too gentle. He’d want to see me and talk, but if you tell him he’ll know that it’s final or I wouldn’t have chosen to tell him through a third person. Will you do it?” “Yes.” “I was going to leave myself,” explained Gloria with a wave of her hand toward the evidences of packing. “But I can’t. George has disappeared—absolutely disappeared—” “When—where?” “I said disappeared; that doesn’t mean he left a forwarding address. He slipped off into the nowhere, sometime between midnight and morning and of course I can’t move until we hear from him.” “You can, too!” Ruth was intense in her excitement. “You can—you’ve given up the Prince; the next thing is to give up George. He’s been the cause of all your troubles. I know you don’t believe it, but he has—he’s hypnotized you—and if he’s disappeared you ought to be glad of it.” Gloria looked at her curiously from between half-closed lids.