you meet him, Di?..." asked Meryl, with interest.

"I was sitting on a wall in the temple, and he strode in and sat on
another wall and stared at the ground ... and I stared at him ... and
then he looked up and saw me ... and afterwards ..." she paused.

"Do you mean to say you sat perfectly still in front of him, and let
him sit on, thinking himself alone, and then suddenly discover
you?..."

"Yes. Why not?"

"Well, it wasn't very fair on him."

"Such nonsense, Meryl! That's just what he seemed to think. Why
shouldn't I have a little romance if I want to? Such a dull, prosaic,
commonplace old world as it is, generally speaking! I was having a
lovely one. He was a great hunter who had lost his way, and dragged
himself into the temple to die...."

"I thought you said he strode in?..."

"Don't be silly; he wasn't in the romance then. And I was a lovely,
mysterious veiled lady who lived in the wilderness; but my veil
happened to be thrown back, and when the dying hunter raised his
eyes...." she stopped short.

"Well?..."

"That's where the romance stopped, where he brutally spoilt it,
because when he raised his eyes and saw me there he just scowled
horribly."

Stanley and Meryl laughed whole-heartedly, but Meryl told her it
served her right because she was unfairly taking him at a
disadvantage.

"But I did nothing of the kind. No one was at a disadvantage except
myself."

"I'm sure you weren't," Meryl remarked. "You never have been yet."

"That's where you are mistaken, my dear. When you are sitting in a
lovely romance, gazing at a dreadfully handsome, distinguished-looking
man who is the hero prince, and will presently discover you and smile
divinely with all his soul in his eyes, and when instead an
iron-visaged person looks up at you, and scowls and grows as black as
thunder, I defy any woman not to find herself at a disadvantage."

"Well, how did you get out of it?... What did you do?..."

The alluring twinkle shone suddenly in Diana's eyes, and her lips
twitched mischievously, as she replied:

"Well, I smiled divinely instead, and asked him to help me down from
my high wall."

"O, you are quite incorrigible," laughed Meryl. "If I had been him I
would have left you there to get down the same way you went up. But
who is he?..." turning to Stanley. "He sounds rather interesting."

"He's a splendid fellow," The Kid asserted, warmly. "We couldn't stick
him at first, Moore and I, but we soon found h