ars and see me dancing still,--always the same whirling, dazzling
thing that filled his little eyes and soul with wonder. So! Percivail
has seen me at my best. He will tell his grandchildren how wonderful
Obosky was,--and he will think of her to his dying day as something
beautiful, not something vile."

"Oh, Olga!"

"You see, my dear," said the other, composedly, "I wanted to make a good
impression on zat virtuous husband of jours. Now he will think of me as
the artist, not as the woman. It is much better so, is it not?"

"Sometimes you say things that cause me to wonder why I don't hate you,
Olga Obosky," cried Ruth under her breath.

Olga laughed softly. "I repeat zat Golden Rule to myself every night and
every morning, Ruthkin," said she, somewhat cryptically. Then they were
silent.

Conversation on the porch behind them lagged and finally ceased
altogether. The soft swish of fans was the only sound to disturb the
tranquil stillness.

"Nineteen-twenty," fell dreamily from the lips of Randolph Fitts's wife.
"I used to think of Nineteen-twenty as being so far in the future that
I would be an old, old woman when I came to it. And here it is,--I am
living in it,--and I am not old."

"Presidential year," said Michael Malone, as he struck a match to
relight the pipe that had gone out. "Doesn't take them long to slip
around, does it? Seems only last week that I voted for Wilson. I wonder
if he'll be running again."

"Sure! And if he can keep us in the war as long as he kept us out of
it," said Peter Snipe, "we'll have to elect him again."

"I'd give a lot to know whether we've got the Germans licked or not,"
mused Fitts. "We've had nearly three years to do it in."

"Depends entirely on the navy," said Platt, Minister of Marine, late of
the U. S. Navy.

"What can the navy do if the Germans will not come out?" demanded
Landover.

"Why, confound it all, the navy can go in, can't it?"

"The British Navy hasn't," was Landover's reply.

"What's the use of speculating about the war?" said Percival, as he
threw himself on the grass at Ruth's feet. "Either it's over or it
isn't, and here we sit absolutely in the dark. They might as well be
fighting on Mars as over in Europe, so far as we are concerned. For
God's sake, let's not even think about the war. We'll all go crazy if we
do."

"You're right," said Fitts, gloomily.

"In any case," said Malone, "Trigger Island has done all that any
self-respecting governm