r is in love with me."

"Indeed, that is very fine," I responded; but my irony met its usual fate.
She did not see it.

"Yes," continued Dorothy, brimming over with mirth, "you should have heard
him pleading with me a few moments since upon the terrace."

"We did hear him," said Madge.

"You heard him? Where? How?" Her eyes were wide with wonder.

"We were on the opposite side of the holly bush from you," I answered. "We
heard him and we saw you."

"Did you? Good. I am glad of it," said Dorothy.

"Yes, we saw and we heard all, and we think that your conduct was
shameless," I responded severely.

"Shameless?" demanded Dorothy. "Now pray tell me what I did or said that
was shameless.".

I was at a loss to define the wrong in her conduct, for it had been of an
intangible quality which in itself was nothing, but notwithstanding meant
a great deal.

"You permitted him to hold your hand," I said, trying to fix on something
real with which to accuse her.

"I did nothing of the sort," said Dorothy, laughingly. "He caught my hand
several times, but I withdrew it from him"

I knew she spoke the truth regarding her hand, so I tried again.

"You--you hung your head and kept your eyes cast down, and you looked--"

"Oh, I hung my head, I cast down my eyes, and I looked?" she answered,
laughing heartily. "Pray let me ask you, Master Fault-finder, for what use
else are heads and eyes made?"

I was not prepared to say that the uses to which Dorothy had put her head
and eyes were not some of the purposes for which they were created. They
are good purposes, too, I admit, although I would not have conceded as
much to Dorothy. I knew the girl would soon wheedle me into her way of
thinking, so I took a bold stand and said:--

"It is my intention to tell John about your conduct with Leicester, and I
shall learn for what purpose he thinks eyes and heads are created."

"Tell John?" cried Dorothy. "Of course you may tell John. He well knows
the purposes of heads and eyes, and their proper uses. He has told me many
times his opinion on the subject." She laughed for a moment, and then
continued: "I, too, shall tell John all that happened or shall happen
between Lord Leicester and me. I wish I could tell him now. How I wish I
could tell him now." A soft light came to her eyes, and she repeated
huskily: "If I might tell him now; if I might tell him now. Why, Malcolm,
I despise Leicester. He is a poor, weak fool. He has no more fo