d of his sash to his lance-point. As he
rode slowly toward the massed stand, the whole field was so still that
he could hear the hoofs of the file of knights behind him. The people
were on their feet.

The mounted herald blew his blast. "By the Majesties of St. Michael and
St. George," he proclaimed, "I declare the Knight of the Crimson Rose
the victor of this our tourney, and do charge him now to choose his
Queen of Beauty, that all may do her homage!"

Shirley saw the horse coming down the line, its rider bareheaded now,
and her heart began to race wildly. Beyond wanting him to take part, she
had not thought. She looked about her, suddenly dismayed. People were
smiling at her and clapping their hands. From the other end of the stand
she saw Nancy Chalmers throwing her a kiss, and beside her a tall pale
girl in champagne-color staring through a jeweled lorgnette.

She was conscious all at once that the flanneled rider was very close
... that his pike-point, with its big red blossom, was stretching up to
her.

* * * * *

With the rose in her hand she curtsied to him, while the blurred throng
cheered itself hoarse, and the band struck up _You Great Big Beautiful
Doll_, with extraordinary rapture, to the tune of which the noise
finally subsided to a battery of hilarious congratulations which left
her flushed and a little breathless. Nancy Chalmers and Betty Page had
burst upon her like petticoated whirlwinds and presently, when the
crowd had lessened, the judge came to introduce his visitor.

"Mr. Fargo and his daughter are our guests at Gladden Hall," he told
her. "They are old friends of Valiant's, by the way; they knew him in
New York."

"Katharine's lighting her incense now, I guess," observed Silas Fargo.
"See there!" He pointed across the stand, where stood a willowy tan
figure, one hand beckoning to the concourse below, where Valiant stood,
the center of a shifting group, round which the white bulldog, mad with
recovered liberty, tore in eccentric circles.

As they looked, she called softly, "John! John!"

Shirley saw him start and face about, then come quickly toward her,
amazement and welcome in his eyes.

As Shirley turned away a little later with the major, that whispering
voice seemed still to sound in her ears--"John! John!" There smote her
suddenly the thought that when he had chosen her his Queen of Beauty, he
had not seen the other--had not known she was there.