hing his
hair here and there with a fanciful hand, while the expression of her
face indicated a conflict between the sentiments with which the man of
Zurich inspired her and those provoked by her hearer.

"Ah, so," said the latter; and then after a little he added, "But
because he writes, your cousin is caused to arrive, and of that arriving
we are become married. I see no trouble in that. _Au contraire_, I see
much good. If I think it were really that Zuricher man that has write to
America I should be most grateful of him. I think I should at once buy
him a cane as that one which I get myself this afternoon."

"Oh, it was he," she said confidently; "Jack told me as much himself. I
asked him if the letter was from Zurich, and he said 'Yes.'"

Von Ibn flung his head far back against the chair cushions and laughed
heartily.

"Oh, _mon Dieu_!" he exclaimed, "I must ever amuse myself of a woman; a
woman does always know!"

Rosina looked at him.

"Why, it _couldn't_ have been any one else," she said positively; "you
know _that_."

He caught her face quickly between his hands and kissed it.

"It could very well be myself," he exclaimed, laughing.

"_You!_"

"Yes; quite with ease. _Pourquoi pas?_"

"_You!_"

Then he laughed afresh in the face of her most complete bewilderment.

"_Tu es tordante!_" he said, and then he crushed her suddenly up in his
arms. "It was I that wrote; it was like this.--You shall hear."

She freed herself so as to regain an upright position and the ability to
fully satisfy her desire to stare in amazement full in his face.

"It _wasn't you_!" she said incredulously; "not _really_?"

"Yes, it was very really I. _Ecoutez donc_, you shall know all."

He raised her hands in his, palm to palm, the fingers interwoven, and
looked into her eyes.

"It was because I am quite decided to marry you," he began.

"There, in Zurich!" she interrupted with a gasp.

"No, not in Zurich.--Naturally in Lucerne; here that first day, out
there where the Quai lies so still in to-night's darkness. When you have
spoken first to me I have decided, and from that hour on it is become
only stronger, never less sure."

She was drawn to lay her two arms about his neck and to listen
breathlessly to his recital.

"If you had been rich and I nobody, it had been so simple to marry you,
perhaps; but being myself somebody, I cannot risk anything. It is so
easy to marry an American when one desires but her money,