she had been caught in a trap. Yes,
what they had worked for, they had won! And yet, in this moment of
winning, as elements of her vast dizziness, Maggie felt sick and
ashamed--felt a frenzied desire to run away from the whole affair. For
Maggie, cynical, all-confident, and eighteen, was proving really a very
poor adventuress.

"Please, Maggie"--his imploring voice broke in upon her--"won't you
answer me? You like me, don't you?--you'll marry me, won't you?"

"I like you, Dick," she choked out--and it was some slight comfort to
her to be telling this much of the truth--"but--but I can't marry you."

"Maggie!" It was a cry of surprised pain, and the pain in his voice
shot acutely into her. "From the way you acted toward me--I thought--I
hoped--" He sharply halted the accusation which had risen to his lips.
"I'm not going to take that answer as final, Maggie," he said doggedly.
"I'm going to give you more time to think it over--more time for me to
try. Then I'll ask you again."

That which prompted Maggie's response was a mixture of impulses: the
desire, and this offered opportunity, to escape; and a faint reassertion
of the momentum of her purpose. For with one such as Maggie, the set
purposes may be seemingly overwhelmed, but death comes hard.

"All right," she breathed rapidly. "Only please get me back as quickly
as you can. I'm to have dinner with my--my cousin, and I'll be very
late."

Dick drove her into the city in almost unbroken silence and left her at
the great doors of the Grantham, abustle with a dozen lackeys in purple
livery. She stood a moment and watched him drive away. He really was a
nice boy--Dick.

As she shot up the elevator, she thought of a hitherto forgotten element
of that afternoon's bewildering situation. Barney Palmer! And Barney
was, she knew, now up in her sitting-room, impatiently waiting for her
report of what he had good reason to believe would prove a successful
experience. If she told the truth--that Dick had proposed, just as they
had planned for him to do--and she had refused him--why, Barney--!

She seemed caught on every side!

Maggie got into her suite by way of her bedroom. She wanted time to
gather her wits for meeting Barney. When Miss Grierson told her that
her cousin was still waiting to take her to dinner, she requested her
companion to inform Barney that she would be in as soon as she had
dressed. She wasted all the time she legitimately could in changing into
a d