“Oh, Lettie, he is in such a state of excitement, you never knew. He took me with him to buy it—let me see it on. I think it’s awfully lovely. Here, let me help you to do your hair—all in those little rolls—it will look charming. You’ve really got beautiful hair—there’s so much life in it—it’s a pity to twist it into a coil as you do. I wish my hair were a bit longer—though really, it’s all the better for this fashion—don’t you like it?—it’s ‘so chic’—I think these little puffs are just fascinating—it is rather long for them—but it will look ravishing. Really, my eyes, and eyebrows, and eyelashes are my best features, don’t you think?” Marie, the delightful, charming little creature, twittered on. I went downstairs. Leslie started when I entered the room, but seeing only me, he leaned forward again, resting his arms on his knees, looking in the fire. “What the Dickens is she doing?” he asked. “Dressing.” “Then we may keep on waiting. Isn’t it a deuced nuisance, these people coming?” “Well, we generally have a good time.” “Oh—it’s all very well—we’re not in the same boat, you and me.” “Fact,” said I laughing. “By Jove, Cyril, you don’t know what it is to be in love. I never thought—I couldn’t ha’ believed I should be like it. All the time when it isn’t at the top of your blood, it’s at the bottom:—‘the Girl, the Girl.’” He stared into the fire. “It seems pressing you, pressing you on. Never leaves you alone a moment.” Again he lapsed into reflection. “Then, all at once, you remember how she kissed you, and all your blood jumps afire.” He mused again for awhile—or rather, he seemed fiercely to con over his sensations. “You know,” he said, “I don’t think she feels for me as I do for her.” “Would you want her to?” said I. “I don’t know. Perhaps not—but—still I don’t think she feels——” At this he lighted a cigarette to soothe his excited feelings, and there was silence for some time. Then the girls came down. We could hear their light chatter. Lettie entered the room. He jumped up and surveyed her. She was dressed in soft, creamy, silken stuff; her neck was quite bare; her hair was, as Marie promised, fascinating; she was laughing nervously. She grew warm, like a blossom in the sunshine, in the glow of his admiration. He went forward and kissed her. “You are splendid!” he said. She only laughed for answer. He drew her away to the great arm-chair, and made her sit in it beside him. She was indulgent and he radiant. He took her hand and looked at it, and at his ring which she wore. “It looks all right!” he murmured. “Anything would,” she replied. “What do they mean—sapphires and diamonds—for I don’t know?” “Nor do I. Blue for hope, because Speranza in ‘Fairy Queen’ had a blue gown—and diamonds for—the crystalline clearness of my nature.” “Its glitter and hardness, you mean—You are a hard little mistress. But why Hope?”