tiny room or a domicile filled to
overflowing with kith and kin. The street-corner is her parlor, the
park is her drawing-room; the avenue is her garden walk; yet for the
most part she is as inviolate mistress of herself in them as is my
lady inside her tapestried chamber.

One evening at dusk, two weeks after their first meeting, Carter and
Masie strolled arm-in-arm into a little, dimly-lit park. They found a
bench, tree-shadowed and secluded, and sat there.

For the first time his arm stole gently around her. Her golden-bronze
head slid restfully against his shoulder.

"Gee!" sighed Masie, thankfully. "Why didn't you ever think of that
before?"

"Masie," said Carter, earnestly, "you surely know that I love you. I
ask you sincerely to marry me. You know me well enough by this time
to have no doubts of me. I want you, and I must have you. I care
nothing for the difference in our stations."

"What is the difference?" asked Masie, curiously.

"Well, there isn't any," said Carter, quickly, "except in the minds
of foolish people. It is in my power to give you a life of luxury. My
social position is beyond dispute, and my means are ample."

"They all say that," remarked Masie. "It's the kid they all give you.
I suppose you really work in a delicatessen or follow the races. I
ain't as green as I look."

"I can furnish you all the proofs you want," said Carter, gently.
"And I want you, Masie. I loved you the first day I saw you."

"They all do," said Masie, with an amused laugh, "to hear 'em talk.
If I could meet a man that got stuck on me the third time he'd seen
me I think I'd get mashed on him."

"Please don't say such things," pleaded Carter. "Listen to me, dear.
Ever since I first looked into your eyes you have been the only woman
in the world for me."

"Oh, ain't you the kidder!" smiled Masie. "How many other girls did
you ever tell that?"

But Carter persisted. And at length he reached the flimsy, fluttering
little soul of the shopgirl that existed somewhere deep down in her
lovely bosom. His words penetrated the heart whose very lightness was
its safest armor. She looked up at him with eyes that saw. And a warm
glow visited her cool cheeks. Tremblingly, awfully, her moth wings
closed, and she seemed about to settle upon the flower of love. Some
faint glimmer of life and its possibilities on the other side of her
glove counter dawned upon her. Carter felt the change and crowded the
opportunity.

"Marry