or the
extra words. It might be a day letter," he suggested.

"Is a telegram quicker?"

It was.

Then it must be a telegram.

She counted the words over again, but they remained considerably more
than ten.

"But I've got to say all that," she said, aloud, "I've just got to!"

She tried once more, and once more after that. The capacity of ten
words for expressing what one wished to say seemed to decrease with
each trial to write the telegram. The operator volunteered his
professional help, after he had watched her spoil several blanks. He
smiled slightly as he read the one she handed him, gratefully accepting
his kind offer.

"You've never sent one before, have you, Miss?"

Arethusa propped her elbows on the high counter, and rested her chin on
them so she could regard his work. "No, I haven't," and she smiled down
at him so charmingly he could almost have franked that telegram
through. "But I thought ten words was oceans."

"No, Miss, it isn't very many." He scratched out the "Dear Timothy,"
she had written "You don't generally say that."

"You don't! Why, how do you know who it's for?"

"You have the address and that doesn't cost you anything."

Arethusa stood on tip-toe and leaned far over the counter to see what
he was doing. She was as close to him as it was possible for her to get
with a large piece of furniture in between them.

"Let's see it?" she asked, breathlessly, when he had finished writing.

It read, in the operator's version:--

"Must come to party, very displeased if you do not.

"ARETHUSA."

Her face clouded. "But I wanted to tell him that I wouldn't speak to
him again if he didn't come. I know he won't, unless I do. Let me come
around where you are, can't I? And can't you say that, that I won't
speak to him?"

The very obliging youth indicated a little gate at one side where she
might find a way in, and Arethusa joined him in consultation over the
message. Two heads are always better than one.

In its final form, the telegram read:--

"Will never speak to you again if you don't come.

"ARETHUSA"

Which proved to be perfectly satisfactory, and lived up to all the good
reputations of telegrams; for it fetched Timothy.

Arethusa met him herself, at the station, when he came the morning of
the Party. She was so Glad to see him! She flung both arms around his
neck and more than one soft kiss was pressed warmly against his cheek:
Timothy all unresisting.

"Oh,