his chin meditatively. By and bye, "I wonder, now," he reflected,

aloud, "if you can give any reason--any possible reason--why you

shouldn't be locked up in the nearest sanatorium?"

"You needn't be rude, you know," a voice observed from the

neighbourhood of the ruffles, "because there isn't anything you can do

about it."

Mr. Woods ventured a series of inarticulate observations. "But why?"

he concluded, desperately. "But why, Peggy?--in Heaven's name, what's

the meaning of all this?"

She looked up. Billy was aware of two large blue stars; his heart