ad. "We leave bright and early the next morning, and
I know Mrs. Eversham will want her rest. I think they would rather
stay here in the hotel after dinner."

"But you will keep a little time for me?" Billy urged. "Of course,
staying in the same hotel, I can't take my hat and go and make a
formal call on you--but that's the result I'm after."

They had paused, to finish this colloquy, a few feet away from the
ladies, who were regarding with dark suspicion this interchange of
lowered tones.

Suddenly Arlee raised her eyes and gave Billy a quick look,
questioning, shyly serious.

"I shall be here--and you can call on me," she promised, and bade
him farewell.

She left him deliriously, inexplicably, foolishly in spirits. He
plunged his hands in his pockets and squared his shoulders; he
wanted to whistle, he wanted to sing, he wanted to do anything to
vent the singular hilarity which possessed him.

Then he saw, across the room, a sandy-haired young man regarding him
with dour intentness, and the spectacle, instead of feeding his joy,
sent conjecturing chills down his spine. His bubble was pricked.
Suppose, ran the horrid thought, suppose she was simply paying off
the Englishman? Girls, even blue-eyed, angel-haired girls of
cherubic aspect, have not been unknown to perform such deeds of
darkness! And this particular girl had mischief in her eyes.... The
thought was unpleasantly likely. What had he, Billy B. Hill, of New
York--State--to offer to casual view worthy of competition with the
presumable advantages of a young Englishman whose sister was staying
with a Lady Claire? Perhaps the fellow himself had a title....

Considerably dashed, he went out to consult the register upon that
point.

CHAPTER II

THE CAPTAIN CALLS

Now, when the card of Captain Kerissen was handed to Miss Arlee
Beecher the next afternoon, when she sauntered in from the sunny
out-of-doors and paused at the desk for the voluminous harvest of
letters the last mail had brought, and furthermore the information
was added that the Captain was waiting, little Miss Beecher's first
thought was the resentful appreciation that the Captain was
overdoing it.

She hesitated, then, with her hands full of letters and parasol, she
crossed the hall into the reception room. She intended to let her
caller see his mistake, so with her burdened hands avoiding a
handclasp, she greeted him and stood waiting, with eyes of inquiry
upon him.

The young