"We can go down there, have our supper, and then get out of the crowd and smell the ocean awhile," he said. He had a knack for putting in a most reasonable light anything he wished to do. It was a feature of his selling gift, and she recognized it as such. "What do you say?" he pressed her. She blushed at her own hesitancy. "Oh, I'll go," she answered. The incident remained uppermost in her thoughts all the rest of the afternoon. If she had known about this excursion the day before, she would have put on a different shirt-waist. She had a new silk waist which was very pretty and which she had meant to wear next Sunday. He met her at the Elevated station, but it was she who had to direct him to the proper trolley for Coney, or they might have landed anywhere along the Sound. Stopping only long enough to buy an ice for supper and a bag of peanuts, they sought the beach. He threw himself down full length on the sand, and she sat with her hands clasped over her knees. The salt air swept her cheeks and cooled them, and the waves before her ran up the beach in play and song. This was certainly a decided improvement over such a night in her room. "See those stars!" he exclaimed, as if this were the first time he had ever seen them. She lifted her eyes and looked at them. "I often look at them," she said. Then she laughed gently to herself. "Do you know what I do when I'm silly enough to want jewels?" she asked. "What?" "I take a look at those stars, and then I don't want jewels any more." "A man could give away diamonds by the handful if women would take that kind," he exclaimed. "See that big fellow up there?" He pointed it out, and she nodded. "I'll give you that one," he offered. She laughed lightly--confidently. "But I don't have to come to you or to any one," she reminded him. "I can just give it to myself." "That isn't quite the same thing, is it?" No, it was not quite the same thing. She knew it. But she was not telling all she knew. "It's a wonder to me you've never married," he said. She caught her breath. She had come to look for unexpected remarks from him, but this was a trifle more unexpected than usual. She tried to laugh as she usually did, but she could not laugh. "I suppose you've figured out that, with all your free diamonds, you're better off as you are," he suggested. She did not answer. "Is that the way of it?" he persisted. She tried to make her voice natural, but there was a tightening in her throat. "I haven't done much figuring of any kind along that line," she said. He was looking out to sea. "I don't know but what both men and women are better off unmarried," he said. "They aren't," she answered. It was some one within her rather than she herself who spoke. He turned to look at her, but her eyes were out at sea. "You mean that?" he said. "I mean it," she answered. "Even if a man hasn't much money?" She turned her eyes again to the sky. "What has money to do with the stars?" she asked.