would have to forfeit if I didn't
marry Paul. It was million, million, wherever I turned!"

"The million-dollar bride," laughed Polly.

"Don't!" cried Constance. "Please don't, Polly! You've done quite
enough. Even you came to me out there that day to tell me that now
Johnny had made his million and was coming to propose to me. Why, you
knew it before I did."

"I'm sorry I found it out," apologized Polly. "I got it from Loring."

"Why didn't you say that it was Loring who told you?" demanded
Constance, disposed now to be indignant at everything.

"I didn't know you were jealous," retorted Polly.

"Jealous!" exclaimed Constance. "Why, Johnny wasn't even civil to any
other girl."

Polly smiled knowingly.

"Then why did you quarrel with him?"

"I didn't," denied Constance. "He came the minute you left and I'd have
screamed if he had proposed then, so I went away. He dropped his straw
hat, and it rolled after me and nearly touched me. He dropped it every
time I saw him that day. Also he added the final indignity--I overheard
him tell Mr. Courtney that he intended to marry me whether I liked it
or not. Now, Polly, seriously, what would you have done if anything
like that had happened to you?"

Polly waited to gain her self-control.

"I'd have taken the hat away from him," she declared.

Constance sailed once more.

"I didn't think of that," she admitted.

"No, and instead here's what you've done," Polly pointed out to her:
"You turned Johnny loose to look after himself, and he isn't capable of
it since he fell in love; so for the last two weeks he's been as savage
as any ordinary business man. That's one thing. For another, you've
made yourself sick just pining and grieving for a sight of Johnny
Gamble."

"I haven't!" indignantly denied Constance, and to prove that assertion
her eyes filled with tears. She covered them with her handkerchief and
Polly petted her, and they both felt better. "I think I'll dress,"
declared Constance after she had been thus refreshed. "My headache's
much improved and I think I'd like to go somewhere." She hesitated a
moment.

"You know everybody was to have gathered here to join Courtney's
Decoration Day party this afternoon," she added.

"Yes, I remember that," retorted Polly, "but I didn't like to rub it
in. Shall I call up everybody and tell them it's on again?"

"Please," implored Constance, "and, Polly--"

"Yes?"

"Tell Johnny to bring his Baltimore straw hat."