at she was going to
marry Anthony, but that she would always be his friend. It was such a
perfect arrangement; he would surely understand.

She sighed a little, wishing that she had nothing to hide. And with her
sigh his moodiness vanished.

"If it's because he's your guardian, all right--but I'm not going to
give you up always so easily."

"Why must you give me up at all?" she challenged.

"Why?" he echoed. "There is no 'why.' I shall never give you up."

At Diana's door she said "Good-bye." "It has been the loveliest evening
of my life," she told him. "I shall never forget."

Anthony came in, ostensibly to telephone, but really to have a moment
alone with Bettina. Sophie, with sympathetic insight, made the excuse of
a letter, which Anthony could mail, and withdrew to write it.

In the dimly-lighted music room, Anthony said, "You must forgive me,
dear child, for seeming to neglect you, but I've been such a busy man."

"I know." She looked up at him. "But it seems nice to have you now."

"And it seems nice to have you."

He smiled at her, but he did not touch her. Somehow since that night in
the empty house with Diana he had felt that there were things which must
come slowly. If he was to play the lover to little Betty, it must be
when he could shut out from his heart the image of that pale tall woman
in the lilac-scented room.

But Bettina missed nothing from his manner. She felt for him a grateful
affection, an unbounded respect, but her wish for impulsive
demonstration was gone. She was content to be near him, to know that he
cared for her--beyond that she had no conscious desires.

Still smiling at her, he took from his pocket a little box. "I haven't
been too busy to remember that I wanted to give you this," he said, and
handed it to her.

Set in a slender ring were three great diamonds, and for a guard there
was a little circlet of sapphires.

"Perhaps you won't care to wear it now," he said, as she gave a gasp of
delight, "but I wanted you to have it. I wanted it to be the sign and
seal of the bond which is between us."

She came to him, then all gratitude and clinging sweetness, and put up
her face to be kissed.

He touched his lips to her forehead. And he said he was glad that he had
made her happy. But he did not tell her that he had forced himself to
plight thus, tangibly, his troth to her that there might be no escape
from the path of honor which he must follow.

Little Bettina, alone th