the cost."

"Go on. Don't temporize."

"I needn't repeat all of them, and in fact I haven't copies. Duke,
after he had my first telegram from St. Thomas, wired back to St.
Croix, '_You are willing to take my name. Why, after all, shouldn't I
refuse your sacrifice and make one of my own by taking yours?_' Wasn't
that noble?"

"It would have softened the heart of a suffragette or a feminist. What
did you reply?"

"I said: '_Never in the world!_'"

"'Never' would have been enough. You wasted three words at a dollar or
so apiece."

"I wanted to be strong. I said: '_Never in the world! I am not going
to have you criticized and nagged and made unhappy, as if your name
were a crime!_' Then he wired: '_But it would remove objections, and
cost only six thousand a year._' I had to wait two whole days and
nights before I could cable: '_Objector will surely meet me in New
York. She will probably forgive if we are both firm. My mind is made
up. I would rather be a you-know-what than remain a Valentine._'"

"That was strong enough."

"I meant it to be. He has been scurrilously treated, and somebody must
stand by him. Now, to-morrow, February 14th, is his birthday. I
remember it because we met on St. Valentine's day, and it wasn't many
hours afterward that I guessed how he felt about me."

"Dorothea! Do you mean to tell me that a man spoke to you of his
feelings within twenty-four hours of the time you met?"

"No, I do not."

"You certainly intimated as much. If it wasn't many hours after you
met on the 14th it must have been on the 15th."

"No, you are wrong, Charlotte. It was the evening of the same day. We
met in the early morning."

"It sounds like a children's party with an exchange of those
snapping-mottoes."

"Duke is nearly twenty-eight, you know, Charlotte; so it is simply
nonsense to jeer at him. You ought to be able to imagine what sort of
things would be said between two persons mutually attracted to each
other--when you remember that he was born on February 14th and my name
is Valentine. The coincidence simply put ideas into our heads; but I
won't go on if you don't sympathize."

"I don't actually disapprove, not at heart. Now, what has his birthday
got to do with to-morrow and St. Thomas?"

"Why, I cabled him as soon as we arrived at Barbados: '_What would you
like for a birthday present from the West Indies?_' I knew that he
would remember we met on St. Valentine's day and an answer could reach
me