"No. That is----" "Did he ever kiss you?" "No, no, no--a thousand times no! Aren't you ashamed of yourself, to have asked such a question?" "Yes--I am!" said Kate, "and I sincerely beg your pardon, but--here, dear, let me dry your eyes. You poor little darling, has Harry been a brute? Oh, won't I make life miserable for him when I get him alone, at home? There, dear! If your own sister isn't here to comfort you, you shan't lack another. Come down stairs with me; Jermyn is here, and I want you to look your prettiest." "It isn't necessary," said Fenie, trying to clear her face of the traces of sorrow and anger. "He's no eyes for any one else when you're present." "You darling girl! Say that again--and again!" "Old chap," Jermyn was saying to Harry, "I don't know what has been the trouble, but I know the nature of it, for I've seen signs of it in many other men who have been in love. Take all the blame to yourself--do! 'Tis the privilege of men to relieve women of all of that sort of thing they can." "'Tis very well for you to talk," grumbled Harry. "'They jest at scars that never felt a wound.' But----" "But, you blessed idiot, do you know what you are in danger of losing? Fenie is one of the sweetest little women on the face of the earth." "How do you know?" asked Harry defiantly. "Were you ever in love with her? From something she said this evening I am half inclined to----" "I was in love with her sister, many years ago," said Jermyn softly; "so I know the family quality." "I beg your pardon," said Harry, humbly, and trying hard to be once more a gentleman. "But she said----" "'Tis no matter what she said. Be a man; be a lover; be a gentleman. Sh--h--h-!--they're coming." Kate entered with Fenie, who greeted Jermyn effusively, while Harry chatted with his sister, there being no one else for him to speak to, for Trixy had disappeared. Kate and Jermyn soon succeeded in making the conversation general, and in compelling Harry and Fenie to talk to each other. Then Jermyn and Kate began to admire some of the Highwoods' pictures so intently that Harry and Fenie could talk only to each other; they dropped their voices, but the tones were audible and promised well. Finally, as the others turned they saw something which caused them to say: "We beg a thousand pardons." "You needn't," replied Fenie bravely. "We've made up, and I don't care if all the world knows it, for it was all my fault from the first." "What a fib!" exclaimed Harry. "It isn't! But how--" here Fenie turned to Kate, "did you chance to come to the rescue? My heart was almost broken." "And mine," added Harry. "And mine," said Kate tragically. "Mine is of no particular consequence," drawled Jermyn, with a reproachful look at Kate, "still, it got a frightful stab."