ones in
her lover's heart. Hence his annoyance and embarrassment. She could
well appreciate his position and in her heart she began to relent
toward him. Miss Jones had evidently, under the pretence of studying
music, come to Leipsic, to look after her recreant adorer, whose
silence had begun to alarm her. The goddesses, too, who had been
initiated into the secret, arrived at similar conclusions, and
proceeded to dislike the innocent Miss Jones with much vehemence. It
was but with reluctance that they heeded their mother's significant
scowl and withdrew in her wake.

"Perhaps," said Miss Jones, drawing a breath of relief as the last of
the trains vanished in the doorway, "perhaps you would now have the
kindness to tell me what this comedy means."

Grover lifted his eyes and gazed at her; she was surpassingly lovely.
A pair of frank, dark American eyes, half humorously challenging, put
at once his embarrassment to flight, and made him feel a delicious
nearness and kinship to their fair possessor.

"Miss Jones," he said, answering promptly the humorous gleam in her
eyes, "I shall have to make you a regular confession. I didn't have
the remotest idea of your existence."

"Nor I of yours," she responded quickly; "but what has that got to do
with the comedy?"

"Everything. You know, I invented you."

"_You_ invented me?"

"Yes, in my dire need, in order to escape from matrimonial
persecutions, I invented a _fiancee_ in America named Miss Jones. But
to be frank, I did not expect you to take me at my word, and turn up
over here, in order to regulate my conduct."

"Oh, I see it all," cried Miss Jones, merrily. "You are in the
position of a novelist whose heroine suddenly steps out of the book
and takes him to task for his fictions."

"But I hope you won't prove a hard task-master," he retorted, gayly.
"In consideration of my generosity in making you beautiful and rich,
you ought not to betray me."

"Do you mean that I ought to remain your _fiancee_?" she asked,
laughing. "I think that is to ask too much of my indulgence."

"You are at liberty to break with me whenever you choose; but until
further notice allow the family to suppose that they are right in
their conjecture. You need simply say nothing about it. You know our
engagement is secret, and we are not expected to show how fond we are
of each other."

"That is very fortunate. However," she continued, lightly, as if
pleased with the absurdity of the though