ckling from her light lashes dimmed
her eye-glasses, so that she was fain to go up to her room to recover
herself alone. When she did so she was startled to find a wire dummy
standing near the door, and neatly folded upon the bed two elegant
dresses. A note in the president's own hand lay beside them. A swift
blush stung her cheek as she read,--

DEAR MISS MARSH,--Will you make me happy by keeping the secret that no
other woman but yourself knows, and by accepting the clothes that no
other woman but yourself can wear?

The next moment, with the dresses over her arm and the ridiculous dummy
swinging by its wires from her other hand, she was flying down the
staircase to Committee Room No. 4. The door opened upon its sole
occupant, the president.

"Oh, sir, how cruel of you!" she gasped. "It was only a joke of mine.
. . . I always intended to tell you. . . . It was very foolish, but it
seemed so funny. . . . You see, I thought it was . . . the dress you
had bought for your future intended--some young lady you were going to
marry!"

"It is!" said the president quietly, and he closed the door behind her.

And it was.

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