t is what I wished you to tell me," replied the girl.

"I can't tell you what you wish me to do, but I can tell you this, Miss
Mayhew: this man's behavior is totally irregular. He would not think of
writing to an Italian or German girl in this way. If he desired
to--to--pay attention to her, he would write to her father."

"Yes, that's what Mrs. Elmore said. She said she supposed he must think
it was the American way."

"Mrs. Elmore," began her husband; but he arrested himself there, and
said, "Very well. I want to know what I am to do. I want your full and
explicit authority before I act. We will dismiss the fact of
irregularity. We will suppose that it is fit and becoming for a
gentleman who has twice met a young lady by accident--or once by
accident, and once by his own insistence--to write to her. Do you wish
to continue the correspondence?"

"No."

Elmore looked into the eyes which dwelt full upon him, and, though they
were clear as the windows of heaven, he hesitated. "I must do what you
_say_, no matter what you mean, you know?"

"I mean what I say."

"Perhaps," he suggested, "you would prefer to return him this letter
with a few lines on your card."

"No. I should like him to know that I have shown it to you. I should
think it a liberty for an American to write to me in that way after such
a short acquaintance, and I don't see why I should tolerate it from a
foreigner, though I suppose their customs _are_ different."

"Then you wish me to write to him?"

"Yes."

"And make an end of the matter, once for all?"

"Yes--"

"Very well, then." Elmore sat down at once, and wrote:--

SIR,--Miss Mayhew has handed me your note of yesterday, and begs me
to express her very great surprise that you should have ventured to
address her. She desires me also to add that you will consider at
an end whatever acquaintance you suppose yourself to have formed
with her.

Your obedient servant,
OWEN ELMORE.

He handed the note to Lily. "Yes, that will do," she said, in a low,
steady voice. She drew a deep breath, and, laying the letter softly
down, went out of the room into Mrs. Elmore's.

Elmore had not had time to kindle his sealing-wax when his wife appeared
swiftly upon the scene.

"I want to see what you have written, Owen," she said.

"Don't talk to me, Celia," he replied, thrusting the wa