g in Africa, or the unerring accuracy
of steel-workers on the skeletons of skyscrapers, throwing red-hot
rivets across yawning spaces and striking the bucket, held to receive
them, every time. And their talk was as simple, as eager, as
unaffected, as hers had been as she talked with Godmother about her
blue silk dress. All those things were a part of their world, as the
blue dress was a part of hers.

She was so interested that she forgot to be afraid. And by and by when
Godmother had drifted off with some one and Mary Alice found herself
alone with one man, she was feeling so "folksy" that she looked up at
him and laughed.

"Seems as if every one had found a 'burning theme'--all but us!" she
said.

The young man--he _was_ young, and very good-looking, in an unusual
sort of way--flushed. "I don't know any of them," he said; "I'm a
stranger."

"So am I," said Mary Alice, "and I don't know any one either. But I'd
like to know some of these people better; wouldn't you?"

"I don't know," returned the young man. "I haven't seen much of
people, and I don't feel at home with them."

"Oh!" cried Mary Alice, quite excitedly, "you need a fairy godmother to
tell you a Secret."

The young man looked unpleasantly mystified. "What secret?" he asked.

She started to explain. He seemed amused, at first, in a supercilious
kind of way. But Mary Alice was so interested in her "burning theme"
that she did not notice how he looked. Gradually his superciliousness
faded.

"Let us find a place where you can tell me the Secret," he said,
looking about the drawing-room. Every place seemed taken.

"There's a settle in the hall," suggested Mary Alice. And they went
out and sat on that. "But I can't tell you the Secret," she said.
"Not yet, anyway."

"Please!" he begged. "I may never see you again."

She looked distressed. "Oh, do you think so?" she said. "But anyhow I
can't tell you. I can only tell you up to where the Secret comes in,
and then--if I never see you again, you can think about it; and any
time you write to me for the Secret, I'll send it to you to help you
when you need it most."

"I need it now," he urged.

"No, you don't," she answered. "I thought I needed it right away, but
I wouldn't have understood it or believed it if I'd heard it then."
And she told him how it was whispered to her, after she had been kind
to the man of many millions.

"And does it work?" he asked, laughing at her story of