ok! The other never got in a
word, don't you know. And I was getting devilish tired of it and wishing
she would move on, when she shifted, preparatory to doing so, and raised
her voice:

"Very well, then, if you don't care to come, I think I will go forward
again and finish the discussion with Doctor Jennie Newman upon the
metamorphoses of the primordial protoplasms. Watch out for Tarrytown
now, Frances."

Tarrytown! Frances! By Jove, my heart skipped a beat!

The other murmured something.

Her voice! Her blessed, sweet voice, of which every syllable, every
shade, was indented in my memory like the record of a what's-its-name!
By Jove, my Frances, and right behind me!

All I could do to sit still a minute longer, but I knew jolly well if I
turned now I would be introduced to the freak and lose I couldn't tell
how many precious moments with my dear one. So I sat low in the chair,
polishing my monocle, you know, and noting with satisfaction that my
part reflected all right in the little strip of mirror. I tried to get a
glimpse of her in it, too, but all I could see was a glorious white
hat--a stunning Neapolitan, flanked with a sheaf of wild ostrich plumes.

And then the freak left. I watched her spraddle down the aisle and out
through the little corridor before I dared risk the accident of a
backward turn of that funny green hat.

Then, when all was safe, I took a deep breath, gripped hard the arms of
the chair, and whirled suddenly around.

"Frances!" I whispered. "My darling!"

CHAPTER XIV

"YOU NEVER SAW ME IN BLACK"

"Oh!" she gasped faintly.

That was all she said at first, her big blue eyes wide distended, her
white-gloved wrists curving above the chair-arms as though to rise. Easy
to see she was completely floored at seeing me.

And as it was her move, I just sat kind of grinning, you know, and
holding her tight with my monocle.

Then her mouth twitched a bit; next her head went up and I heard again
that delicious birdlike carol of a laugh. Her eyes came to rest upon the
hat in my hand. I had slipped my Harvard band around it, remembering the
admiration she had expressed for our colors.

"Oh!" she said again, and she looked at me hesitatingly. "Mr. Jones, is
it not--or is it--"

I chuckled. "Mr. Smith, you know," I said. "Mr. Smith, of course."

And then I just went on chuckling, for I thought it so devilish clever
of her, so humorous. And just then I thought of a dashed good reparte