sacred. For she loved him with a clean heart, loved him infinitely.

Let us smile at it--tenderly--and pass on.

But upon my word, when I think of how unreasonably, how outrageously

Margaret had behaved during the entire evening, I am tempted to

depose her as our heroine. I begin to regret I had not selected Adèle

Haggage.

She would have done admirably. For, depend upon it, she, too, had

her trepidations, her white nights, her occult battles over Hugh Van

Orden. Also, she was a pretty girl--if you care for brunettes--and

accomplished. She was versed in I forget how many foreign languages,