oud. It came from a faithful lover of
hers, a youthful Jersey gentleman, who stated that he was soon going to
start for England to claim his darling, according to her plighted word.

She was half risible, half concerned. 'What shall I do?' she said.

'Do? My dear girl, it seems to me that there is only one thing to do,
and that a very obvious thing. Tell him as soon as possible that you are
just on the point of marriage.'

Marcia thereupon wrote out a reply to that effect, Jocelyn helping her
to shape the phrases as gently as possible.

'I repeat' (her letter concluded) 'that I had quite forgotten! I am
deeply sorry; but that is the truth. I have told my intended husband
everything, and he is looking over my shoulder as I write.'

Said Jocelyn when he saw this set down: 'You might leave out the last
few words. They are rather an extra stab for the poor boy.'

'Stab? It is not that, dear. Why does he want to come bothering me?
Jocelyn, you ought to be very proud that I have put you in my letter at
all. You said yesterday that I was conceited in declaring I might have
married that science-man I told you of. But now you see there was yet
another available.'

He, gloomily: 'Well, I don't care to hear about that. To my mind this
sort of thing is decidedly unpleasant, though you treat it so lightly.'

'Well,' she pouted, 'I have only done half what you have done!'

'What's that?'

'I have only proved false through forgetfulness, but you have while
remembering!'

'O yes; of course you can use Avice Caro as a retort. But don't vex
me about her, and make me do such an unexpected thing as regret the
falseness.'

She shut her mouth tight, and her face flushed.

The next morning there did come an answer to the letter asking her
parents' consent to her union with him; but to Marcia's amazement her
father took a line quite other than the one she had expected him to
take. Whether she had compromised herself or whether she had not seemed
a question for the future rather than the present with him, a native
islander, born when old island marriage views prevailed in families; he
was fixed in his disapproval of her marriage with a hated Pierston. He
did not consent; he would not say more till he could see her: if she had
any sense at all she would, if still unmarried, return to the home from
which she had evidently been enticed. He would then see what he could
do for her in the desperate circumstances she had made for hersel