nd note
written upon the same faintly tinted paper. Immediately as if by magic
his face was transfigured by the animated satisfaction of the conqueror,
and instinctively his hand wandered to the ends of his fair moustache,
to which he added an eloquent upward twirl. From the condition of a mere
sullen and dejected animal--he sprang instantly into the victorious
swagger of the complacent male.

"Sorry, but I'm in an awful hurry," he remarked in his usual hearty
voice. "Look me up later in the evening and we'll have a game of
billiards."

He went out, still twirling the fine ends of his moustache, and Kemper
followed, after a short delay, to where his newest French motor car was
waiting before the door.

A little later as he moved slowly amid the crush of vehicles in Fifth
Avenue, it occurred to him that since Perry was so agreeably engaged, he
might himself come in for a share of Gerty's society, and stopping
before her door, he sent up a request that she would come with him for a
short quick run up Riverside. Next to Laura herself he felt that he
preferred Gerty because he knew that she would enter into a lively
banter upon the subject that filled his thoughts, and his emotion was so
fresh that there was a piquant charm in her sprightly allusion to the
mere fact of its existence. When she came down at the end of a few
minutes, wearing her long tan motoring coat and a fluttering white
chiffon veil, he felt a quick impatience of the first casual phrases
with which she leaned back in the car and settled her hanging draperies
about her.

"Go as fast as you like," he said to the chauffeur, and then reaching
into his pocket, he drew out his glasses and offered her a pair.

She shook her head, with an indignant gesture of refusal. "If I perish I
perish, but I won't perish hideously!" she exclaimed.

With a laugh he slipped the elastic over his cap. "What a bore it must
be always to keep beautiful," he remarked. "You can't imagine the
positive delight there is in the freedom of ugliness."

"I dare say." She had turned her head to look at a passing carriage, and
he saw the lovely delicacy of her profile through the blown transparent
folds of her veil. "I shall know it some day," she added presently, "for
after I've safely passed my fiftieth birthday, I mean never to look into
a glass again. Then I'll break my mirrors and be really happy."

"No, you won't, my dear cousin," he rejoined, "for you'll continue to
see yourse