the calendar, like rose petals. There had been cup races for
automobiles, and football and baseball matches for men and girls, and
other matches less noisy but almost as emotional. There had been
dinners and balls, first nights at the opera, Washington's Birthday
week-end house parties in the Adirondacks, and Easter church parades
for those who had not gone abroad or to Florida. Among those who chose
Florida (there had been a great deal about this in the Sunday
supplements) were Miss Rolls and her brother. Ena had collapsed under
an alleged attack of grippe after Lord Raygan went away and his
engagement with Portia (_alias_ "Pobbles") Gregory--the rich Miss
Gregory--was announced. Some people were mean enough to say that it
was not grippe but grief which laid Ena low in the height of the
season; and if there was anything in this gossip, the grief would have
been greater had Miss Rolls known that she herself was (indirectly)
responsible for the happy ending of Raygan's romance.

A letter written by Lady Eileen while at Sea Gull Manor to her cousin
Pobbles had (so Pobbles confessed later) suddenly opened the lady's
eyes to her own true feelings. She began to wonder if Rags had loved
her "for herself," after all. And, anyhow, she didn't want a girl like
Ena Rolls to get him. So she met the ship on which Lady Raygan, Rags,
and Eileen returned to Ireland, in order to "make a dead set" at the
man she had once discarded. An engagement was the consequence, and in
the first letter Rags wrote to thank his kind host and hostess on Long
Island, he asked for congratulations.

It was the same day that Ena began to sneeze so dismally that the only
place for her was bed. And when she could leave its seclusion the next
only place was Palm Beach. She said she would die unless she could go
to Palm Beach, so mother took her, and Peter took them both, not to
speak of Ena's maid.

He did not wish to play courier. To turn his back on New York
interfered seriously with his plans and half plans and hopes and half
hopes. But father would not go, and mother and Ena could not without
a man. Peter was the only one available at the moment, and it was
April when Ena felt well enough to face the North again. By this time
the news of her engagement to the Marchese di Rivoli had been copied
from all the principal papers into the little papers, and even the
most confirmed cats must be acknowledging far and near that to lose an
earl and gain a marqui