rushed lightly by to other topics. "But that isn't what I wanted to
talk about. I think Morgan ought to travel abroad for several months,
don't you?"

Mrs. Masters sighed. There was a thought in her mind which had long been
there. If Morgan and Anne could be brought to a fancy for each other,
her problem in life would be settled. The girl would no longer be a
charity child. But what she said was an amendment to the original
thought. "Isn't he a bit inexperienced--and headstrong yet, to be turned
loose alone in Europe?"

The Colonel's eyes twinkled. "I mean to have a check-rein on him."

"What fashion of check-rein, Cousin Tom?"

"I thought," said the lawyer off-handedly, since he always surrounded
his beneficences with a show of the casual, "that it would be a good
thing for Anne too. Now if you and she and Morgan made a European trip
together, the responsibility of two ladies on his hands would steady the
young scapegrace."

Mrs. Masters almost gasped in her effort to control her delighted
astonishment. Morgan had always thought of Anne as a "kid" to be teased
and badgered, and of himself as a very finished and mature young
gentleman. Now they would see each other in a new guise. Their eyes
might be opened. In short, the possibilities were immense.

"Your goodness to us--" she began feelingly, but the Colonel cleared his
throat and raised a hand in defence against the embarrassment of verbal
gratitude.

A month later the three sat in the _salle-a-manger_ of the Elysee Palace
Hotel, by a window that commanded a view of the Arc de Triomphe, and
many things had happened. Among them was the surprising discovery by the
young man, that while few eyes seemed concerned with him, many turned
toward Anne, and having turned, lingered.

Only last night they had been to a dance, and Anne had been so occupied
with uniforms that she had found no time to waltz with him--though he
was sure that he danced circles about these stiff-kneed gentry with
petty titles.

Now over the _petit dejeuner_ he took his young and inconsiderate cousin
to task.

"Last night, Anne, I camped on your trail all evening, and you couldn't
manage to slip me in one dance. Nothing would do but goggling Britishers
and smirking frog-eaters. I'm getting jolly well fed up with these
foreigners."

Anne lifted her brows, but her eyes sparkled mischief.

"Oh, Morgan, I can dance with you any time," she assured him. "You're
just kin-folks. Is it because y