" he declared boyishly.
"It's the first dress I ever bought for her, and I'm crazy to see how
she looks in it."

Persis approved the suggestion. "But don't be discouraged if she needs
a lot of coaxing. It's as natural for women to primp and fuss and fix
their hair up pretty ways when they're feeling happy as 'tis for plants
to put out leaves in the spring. But heavy hearts are like winter
weather. If you want any blossoms in December, you've got to work for
'em." She wrote "received payment" beneath Mr. Thompson's bill and
went to the secretary for the change. Young Mr. Thompson pocketed his
forty-five cents and detained the hand that tendered it.

"Look here, Miss Dale," he said, "you've braced me up wonderfully. I
feel more like a man and less like a feather-bolster than I did when I
came in. I wonder if you couldn't--" He hesitated and pressed her
fingers persuasively. "Couldn't you manage to drop a hint to Molly
about appearances being deceptive, you know."

"I'll say more than that before I'm done with her," Persis promised
briskly. And they shook hands over again, and young Mr. Thompson
departed with an alert step that argued a corresponding lightness of
heart. And because Persis Dale was a woman of action, she sat down at
the secretary and penned a letter to a total stranger, to Mr. W.
Thompson, care of the Hollenden Hotel, Cleveland. The letter itself
was brief and to the point.

"Dear Sir:

"I should like to know if you are expecting word from a young woman
named Enid. In case you are, kindly communicate with the undersigned.

"Yours truly,

"Persis Dale."

Brief as the letter was its composition took some little time. The
deftness which characterized Persis in most of her work, did not extend
to her epistolary efforts. She was still puckering her forehead over
the page when Thomas Hardin knocked. The door was ajar and glancing
over her shoulder, she called to him to enter.

"You'll excuse me for not getting up, Thomas. When once I sit down to
an ink bottle, I stick to it till I finish. I'm in a hurry to get this
letter off to-night." She wrote the address and dried the ink by
moving the paper gently back and forth.

Thomas' face showed relief. He had come prepared to make a painful
disclosure and the brief period of waiting was as welcome as similar
postponement to the possessor of an aching tooth who calls at the
dentist's office and finds the practitioner busy. But as