b for four weeks for ungentleman's
ungentlemanly behavior in consequence. Black as my eyes were, however, I
was on hand at the breakfast-table the following morning, and of course
Henriette observed my injuries.

"Why, Bunny!" she cried. "What is the meaning of this? Have you been
fighting?"

"Oh no, Mrs. Van Raffles," I returned, sarcastically, "I've just
strained my eyes reading the divorce news from South Dakota."

She gave a sudden start.

"What do you mean?" she demanded, her face flushing hotly.

"You know well enough what I mean," I retorted, angrily. "Your goings on
with Colonel Scrappe are the talk of the town, and I got these eyes in a
little discussion of your matrimonial intentions. That's all."

"Leave the room instantly!" she cried, rising and haughtily pointing to
the door. "You are insufferable."

But the color in her cheeks showed that I had hit home far harder than
she was willing to admit. There was nothing for me to do but to obey
meekly, but my blood was up, and instead of moping in my room I started
out to see if I could find Constant-Scrappe. My love for Henriette was
too deep to permit of my sitting quietly by and seeing another walk away
with the one truly coveted prize of my life, and I was ready on sight to
take the colonel by the collar--he was only a governor's-staff colonel
anyhow, and, consequently no great shakes as a fighter--and throw him
into the harbor, but my quest was a vain one. He was to be found in none
of his familiar haunts, and I returned to Bolivar Lodge. And then came
the shock. As I approached the house I saw the colonel assisting
Henriette into the motor-car, and in response to the chauffeur's "Where
to, sir," I heard Scrappe reply in an excited undertone:

"To New York--and damn the speed laws."

In a moment they had rushed by me like the flash of a lightning express,
and Henriette was gone!

You must know the rest. The papers the next day were full of the
elopement in high life. They told how the Scrappe divorce had been
granted at five o'clock in the afternoon the day before, how Colonel
Scrappe and Mrs. Van Raffles had sped to New York in the automobile and
been quietly married at the Little Church Around the Corner, and were
now sailing down the bay on the _Hydrostatic_, bound for foreign climes.
They likewise intimated that a very attractive lady of more than usual
effusiveness of manner, whose nuptials were expected soon to be
published for the second ti