e until winter then!' Of course he was joking, and a
girl with the least common sense would have known it; but I retorted,
'That is an excellent plan!' He said, 'Why, Helen, you don't mean
that, do you?' and I said I certainly did. We parted rather stiffly.
It was his last evening at home, and I had put on the frock in honor of
it. He wrote as soon as he reached London, and referred to the dress
again. He said such trivial things should never be permitted to come
between two people who loved each other. I returned that it was not
trivial, but a matter of principle, which I should support. John, it
actually parted us. Actually parted us! Just think of it!"

"Well, I never heard such bosh!" Zaidos said. "Why didn't you write
and tell him it was perfect nonsense, and that you were sorry?"

"That is the worst of it," said Helen. "I did just that, and told him
how I loved him, and that it didn't matter _what_ I wore, so long as he
liked it. Oh, I said everything, John, that a silly and repentant and
loving girl _could_ say, and sent the letter to his quarters in London.
I even put my return address on the envelope."

"What did he say?" said Zaidos.

"Not a word!" said Helen sadly. "Not one word! I waited for two
weeks, and then he was ordered to the front. Still he did not write.
I sent him back his ring; it was all I could do, and left home for
awhile. He came down for a day, but did not come to our house. Not a
very exciting affair is it, John?"

"Perfect bosh!" declared Zaidos. "I'll bet anything, _anything_ that
he never received your letter at all, or else he answered and you did
not get his letter. Why didn't you telephone him? _Letters_ are no
good."

"I asked him to telephone me," said Helen. "I watched that telephone
for three days all the time."

"Didn't you leave it at all?" said Zaidos.

"Only once for an hour," said Helen, "and then I had my own maid sit
right beside it.

"That is all there is to my poor little story, John boy. Tony is
somewhere in France, if he still lives, and I came out here when I
could stand it no longer at home. You see I am not afraid of death
because I don't in the least care to live without Tony."

"Well, it's too bad," said Zaidos. "Wish I had been there. I just
know he never got your letter. I just know it!"

"The story is ended now, at any rate," said Helen. "If Tony lives he
will go back home and marry some woman who has common sense to
appre