In
another she was in a riding-habit mounted upon a pony of which she
seemed very much afraid.

In some she sat like a siren among the rocks with the waves and seaweed
snatching at her feet, and in another she crouched beneath the wheel of
Herbert's touring car. All of the photographs were unprofessional and
intimate, and the legends scrawled across them were even more intimate.

"'As long as this rock lasts!'" read Herbert. At arm's length he held
the picture for Cochran to see, and laughed bitterly and unmirthfully
as he had heard leading men laugh in problem plays.

"That is what she wrote," he mocked--"but how long did it last? Until
she saw that little red-headed Albany playing polo. That lasted until
his mother heard of it. She thought her precious lamb was in the
clutches of a designing actress, and made the Foreign Office cable him
home. Then Aline took up one of those army aviators, and chucked him
for that fellow who painted her portrait, and threw him over for the
lawn-tennis champion. Now she's engaged to Chester Griswold, and
Heaven pity her! Of course he's the greatest catch in America; but he's
a prig and a snob, and he's so generous with his money that he'll give
you five pennies for a nickel any time you ask him. He's got a heart
like the metre of a taxicab, and he's jealous as a cat. Aline will
have a fine time with Chester! I knew him at St. Paul's and at Harvard,
and he's got as much red blood in him as an eel!"

Cochran sprang to the defense of the lady of his dreams.

"There must be some good in the man," he protested, "or Miss Proctor-"

"Oh, those solemn snobs," declared Herbert, "impress women by just
keeping still. Griswold pretends the reason he doesn't speak to you is
because he's too superior, but the real reason is that he knows
whenever he opens his mouth he shows he is an ass."

Reluctantly Herbert turned over to Charles the precious pictures. "It
would be a sin to destroy them, wouldn't it?" he prompted.

Cochran agreed heartily.

"You might even," suggested Herbert, "leave one or two of them about.
You have so many of Aline already that one more wouldn't be noticed.
Then when I drop in I could see it." He smiled ingratiatingly.

"But those I have I bought," Cochran pointed out. "Anybody can buy
them, but yours are personal. And they're signed."

"No one will notice that but me," protested Herbert. "Just one or
two," he coaxed-"stuck round among the others. The