all the
while I was just sick and faint with the thought of it--"Jimmie Ford is
here, and he hasn't said a word to me. Jimmie Ford is here--and--he
hasn't said a word----"

At last I couldn't stand it any longer, and when I was dancing with
Geoffrey Fox I said, "Do you think we could go down to the Garden Room? I
must get away."

He didn't ask any question. And presently we were down there in the
quiet, and he had his bandage off, and was looking at me, anxiously.
"What has happened, Mistress Anne?"

And then, oh, Uncle Rod, I told him. I don't know how I came to do it,
but it seemed to me that he would understand, and he did.

When I had finished his face was white and set. "Do you mean to tell me
that any man has tried to break your heart?"

I think I was crying a little. "Yes. But the worst of all is my--pride."

"My little Princess," he said softly, "that this should have come--to
you."

Uncle Rod, I think that if I had ever had a brother, I should have wanted
him to be like Geoffrey Fox. All his lightness and frivolity seemed to
slip from him. "He has thrown away what I would give my life for," he
said. "Oh, the young fool, not to know that Paradise was being handed to
him on a platter."

I didn't tell him Jimmie's name. That is not to be spoken to any one but
you. And of course he could not know, though perhaps he guessed it, after
what happened later.

While we sat there, Dr. Richard came to hunt for us. "Everybody is going
in to supper," he said. He seemed surprised to find us there together,
and there was a sort of stiffness in his manner. "Mother has been asking
for you."

We went at once to the dining-room. There were long tables set in the
old-fashioned way for everybody. Mrs. Nancy wanted things to be as they
had been in her own girlhood. On the table in the wide window were two
birthday cakes, and at that table Dr. Richard sat with his mother on one
side of him, and Eve Chesley on the other. Eve's cake had pink candles
and his had white, and there were twenty-five candles on each cake.

Geoffrey Fox and I sat directly opposite; Dutton Ames was on my right,
Mrs. Ames was on Geoffrey's left, and straight across the table, with
his mask off, was Jimmie Ford, staring at me with all his eyes!

For a minute I didn't know what to do. I just sat and stared, and then
suddenly I picked up the glass that stood by my plate, raised it in
salute and drank smiling. His face cleared, he hesitated just a fr