tness and ease with
which he would surround them, he wanted their deference to his
masculine point of view.

With the box which George sent was a note. It was the first that Becky
had ever received from her lover. George's code did not include much
correspondence. Flaming sentiment on paper was apt to look silly when
the affair ended.

To Becky, her name on the outside of the envelope seemed written in
gold. She was all blushing expectation.

"There ain't no answer," Calvin said, and she waited for him to go
before she opened it.

She read it and sat there drained of all feeling. She was as white as
the roses on her table. She read the note again and her hands shook.

"Flora is very ill. We are taking her up to New York. After that we
shall go to the North Shore. There isn't time for me to come and say;
'Good-bye.' Perhaps it is better not to come. It has been a wonderful
summer, and it is you who have made it wonderful for me. The memory
will linger with me always--like a sweet dream or a rare old tale. I
am sending yon a little token--for remembrance. Think of me sometimes,
Becky."

That was all, except a scrawled "G. D." at the end. No word of coming
back. No word of writing to her again. No word of any future in which
she would have a part.

She opened the box. Within on a slender chain was a pendant--a square
sapphire set in platinum, and surrounded by diamonds. George had
ordered it in anticipation of this crisis. He had, hitherto, found
such things rather effective in the cure of broken hearts.

Now, had George but known it, Becky had jewels in leather cases in the
vaults of her bank which put his sapphire trinket to shame. There were
the diamonds in which a Meredith great-grandmother had been presented
at the Court of St. James, and there were the pearls of which her own
string was a small part. There were emeralds and rubies, old corals
and jade--not for nothing had the Admiral sailed the seas, bringing
back from China and India lovely things for the woman he loved. And
now the jewels were Becky's, and she had not cared for them in the
least. If George had loved her she would have cherished his sapphire
more than all the rest.

But he did not love her. She knew it in that moment. All of her
doubts were confirmed.

The thing that had happened to her seemed incredible.

She put the sapphire back in its box, wrapped it, tied the string
carefully and called Mandy.

"Te