"One gets to know a man pretty well on a trip like that. I wouldn't
change mine for any one that was ever made. I like everything about him,
Di. I am the happiest girl."

"I'm so glad you see it that way at last." Diane passed to the practical
aspect of the situation. "But Thursday. Will that give us time, my dear?
And who are you going to have here?"

"Just the family. I've invited two guests, but neither of them can come.
One has a broken leg and the other says he doesn't want to see me
married to another man," Sheba explained with a smile.

"So Gordon won't come."

"Yes. He'll have to be here. We can't get along without the bridegroom.
It wouldn't be a legal marriage, would it?"

Diane looked at her, for the moment dumb. "You little wretch!" she got
out at last. "So it's Gordon, is it? Are you quite sure this time? Not
likely to change your mind before Thursday?"

"I suppose, to an outsider, I do seem fickle," Miss O'Neill admitted
smilingly. "But Gordon and I both understand that."

"And Colby Macdonald--does he understand it too?"

"Oh, yes." Her smile grew broader. "He told me that he didn't think I
would quite suit him, after all. Not enough experience for the place."

Diane flashed a suspicious look of inquiry. "Of course that's nonsense.
What did he tell you?"

"Something like that. He will marry Mrs. Mallory, I think, though he
doesn't know it yet."

"You mean she will get him on the rebound," said Diane bluntly.

"That isn't a nice way to put it. He has always liked her very much. He
is fond of her for what she is. What attracted him in me were the things
his imagination gave to me."

"And Gordon likes you, I suppose, for what you are?"

Sheba did not resent the little note of friendly sarcasm. "I suppose he
has his fancies about me, too, but by the time he finds out what I am
he'll have to put up with me."

The arrival of Elliot interrupted confidences. He had come, he said, to
receive congratulations.

"What in the world have you been doing with your face?" demanded Diane.
As an afterthought she added: "Mr. Macdonald is all cut up too."

"We've been taking massage treatment." Gordon passed to a subject of
more immediate interest. "Do I get my congratulations, Di?"

She kissed him, too, for old sake's sake. "I do believe you'll suit
Sheba better than Colby Macdonald would. He's a great man and you are
not. But it isn't everybody that is fit to be the wife of a great man."

"That's a