"You will have to work very hard to place Mr. Stanwood where 'C' was in our good graces!" said Cyn, archly. "Then suppose we drop the Mr. Stanwood, and take up Clem, who already was somewhat advanced!" he said, adroitly. "Ah! Clem sounds more natural, doesn't it, Nat?" questioned Cyn laughing; "we knew Clem and 'C,' but Mr. Stanwood is a stranger!" "Then let us drop him by all means! and now say you are glad to see your old friend!" said Clem, gayly. "We are transported with delight at beholding our Clem, so lately given up as lost forever!" Cyn replied with equal gayety; and Clem, then looking at Nattie, as if he expected her to say something also, she murmured, "I am very glad to meet 'C,'" a remark that sounded cold beside that of enthusiastic Cyn. But in fact Nattie was so confused, so happy, and so strangely timid, that she longed to get away by herself and think it all over and quietly realize it; and besides, in her secret heart, Nattie felt a growing conviction that Cyn used the plural pronoun we more than previous circumstances actually warranted. "But Nat," said Cyn, all unconscious of her friend's jealous criticism, "you have not yet told me how you found him out?" "He telegraphed to me with a pencil on the table, and coolly informed me that he was 'C,'" Nattie explained. "And then you jumped up and threw us uninitiated ones into a great state of alarm," said Cyn; "and instead of practicing for a drum corps, as I supposed, you were talking secretly, you sly creatures!" then turning to Clem, she asked, laughing, "what did you think when Nat dropped you so suddenly and completely?" "What could I think, except that it was a caprice of hers," he answered, laughing. "At first I thought she was vexed at my having gone to B a, but she denied that, and finally I believe I became angry myself, and concluded to let her have her own way. Nevertheless, I could not resist calling to see her, when I came to the city, and had I met with any encouragement, I should probably have declared myself, but I was annihilated without ceremony." "You would not have been, perhaps, had you been honest in the first place, instead of asking unnecessary questions about tariffs," replied Nattie. "Yes, but you were to recognize me by intuition you know, and I wanted to give you a chance," responded Clem, quickly. Nattie looked a trifle abashed. "But I am quite sure I should have suspected it was you, had I not given you up as hopelessly red-headed," she persisted; "why, almost the very first question the creature asked was, 'do you see that twinkle?'" "So he heard and treasured that remark to some purpose," he said; "well, I will not dispute your intuition theory, since your last words assure me that I do not fall so far short of your imaginary 'C,' as did my personator. I imagine your expression of countenance, on learning the intelligence, was hardly flattering to his vanity."