quare heads of all the buildings which competed
in an endeavor to touch the clouds; and there was a song in his heart.

They sat down side by side in a Western Union office, dallied for a
moment or two with the tied pencils the points of which are always
blunt, and to the incessant longs and shorts of a dozen telegraph
instruments they put their epoch-making news on the neat blanks. Martin
did not intend to be left out of it. His best pal was off the map, and
so he chose a second-best friend and wrote triumphantly: "Have been
married to-day. Staying in New York for honeymoon. How are you?" He was
sorry that he couldn't remember the addresses of a hundred other men.
He felt in the mood to pelt the earth with such telegrams as that.

"Listen," said Joan, her eyes dancing with mischief. "I think this is a
pretty good effort: 'Blessings and congratulations on her marriage
to-day may be sent to Mrs. Martin Gray, at 26 East Sixty-seventh
Street, New York.--Joan.' How's that?"

It was the first time the boy had seen that name, and he blinked and
smiled and got very red. "Terse and literary," he said, dying to put
his arms round her and kiss her before all mankind. "They'll have
something to talk about at dinner to-night. A nice whack in the eye for
Gleave."

He managed to achieve a supremely blase air while the words were being
counted, but it crumbled instantly when the telegraphist shot a quick
look at Joan and gave Martin a grin of cordial congratulation.

As soon as he saw a taxi, Martin hailed it and told the chauffeur to
drive to the corner of Forty-second Street and Fifth Avenue. "We'll
walk from there," he said to Joan, "--if you'd like to, that is."

"I would like to. I want to peer into the shop windows and look at hats
and dresses. I've got absolutely nothing to wear. Marty, tell me, are
we well off?"

Martin laughed. She reminded him of a youngster going for a picnic and
pooling pocket money. "Yes," he said, "--quite."

She sat back with her hands crossed in her lap. "I'm so glad. It
simplifies everything to have plenty to spend." But for her exquisite
slightness and freshness, no one would have imagined that she was an
only just-fledged bird, flying for the first time. Her equability and
poise were those of a completely sophisticated woman. Nothing seemed to
surprise her. Whatever happened was all part and parcel of the great
adventure. Yesterday she was an overwatched girl, looking yearningly at
a city t