on, and he
finally gave in that she liked him just for himself. That was a proud
day for him, poor old Bill!"

"And did she--could she really love him?" Patsy asked the question of
herself rather than the man beside her.

But he answered it promptly: "I don't believe Marjorie Schuyler has
anything to love with; it was overlooked when she was made. That's
what's worrying me. If he's got into a scrape he'd tell Marjorie the
first thing; and she's not the understanding, forgiving kind. He
hasn't any money; he wouldn't go to his father; and because he's
borrowed from me once, he's that idiotic he wouldn't do it again. If
Marjorie has given him his papers he's in a jolly blue funk and
perfectly capable of going off where he'll never be heard of again.
Hang it all! I don't see why he couldn't have come to me?"

Patsy said nothing while he replenished her plate and helped himself
to another sandwich. At last she asked, casually, "Did the two of you
ever have a disagreement over Marjorie Schuyler?"

"He asked me once just what I thought of her, and I told him. We
never discussed her again."

"No?" Inwardly Patsy was tabulating why Billy Burgeman had not gone
to his friend when Marjorie Schuyler failed him. He would hardly have
cared to criticize the shortcomings of the girl he loved with the man
who had already discovered them.

"What are you two jabbering about?" Janet Payne had left her group
and the hectic argument over fashions.

"Sure, we're threshing out whether it's the Irish or the suffragettes
will rule England when the war is over."

"Well, which is it?"

"Faith! the answer's so simple I'm ashamed to give it. The women will
rule England--that's an easy matter; but the Irish will rule the
women."

"Then you are one of the old-fashioned kind who approves of a lord
and master?" Gregory Jessup looked up at her quizzically.

"'Tis the new fashion you're meaning; having gone out so long since,
'tis barely coming in yet. I'd not give a farthing for the man who
couldn't lead me; only, God help him! if he ever leaves his hands off
the halter."

The laugh that followed gave Patsy time to think. There was one more
question she must be asking before the others joined them and the
conversation became general. She turned to Janet Payne with a little
air of anxious inquiry.

"Maybe you'd ask the rascally villain who kidnapped me, when he has
it in his mind to keep his promise and fetch me to Arden?"

As the girl