not want to believe it.

"That's different, Gordon. It explains--and in a way excuses--your
coming here and trying to bully me." She stopped her work to flash a
question at him. "Don't you think that maybe it's only a fancy of yours?
I remember you used--"

He shook his head. "No chance, Diane. I'm hard hit. She's the only girl
I ever met that suited me. Everything she does is right. Every move she
makes is wonderful."

The eyes with which she looked at him were softer, as those of women are
wont to be for the true romance.

"You poor boy," she murmured, and let her hand for a moment rest on his.

"Meaning that I lose?" he asked quickly.

"I think you do. I'm not sure."

Elliot leaned forward impulsively. "Be a good sport, Diane. Let me have
my chance too. Why do you make it easy for Macdonald and hard for me?
Isn't it because the glamour of his millions blinds you?"

"He's a big, splendid man, but I don't like him any the less because he
has the power to make life easy and comfortable for Sheba," she defended
sturdily.

"Yet you turned down Arthur West, the best catch in your set, to marry
Peter, who was the worst," he reminded her. "Have you ever been sorry
for it?"

"That's different. Peter and I fit. It was one case out of a million."
She gave him her old, friendly smile. "But I don't want to be hard on
you, Gord. I'll be neutral. Come and see Sheba as often as she'll let
you."

Gordon beamed as he shook hands with her. "That sounds like the Di Paget
I used to know."

She recurred to the previous question. "Sheba knows more about Mr.
Macdonald than you think. And about how he got her father's claim, for
instance,--she has heard all that."

"You told her?"

"No. Colby Macdonald told her. He said he practically robbed her father,
and he gave her a check for nearly two hundred thousand to cover the
clean-up from the claim and interest."

"Bully for him." On the heel of this he flung a question at her. "Did
Macdonald ask her to marry him the night of the dinner?"

A flash of whimsical amusement lit her dainty face. "You'd better ask
him that. Here he comes now."

They were coming down the walk together, Macdonald and Sheba. The young
woman was absorbed in his talk, and she did not know that her cousin and
Elliot were on the porch until she was close upon them. But at sight of
the young man her eyes became warm and kind.

"I'm sorry I was out yesterday when you called," she told him.

"And you