that Cornelia frequently purchased and called "artistic."

The girl received the hat with a grateful relief that was entirely
satisfactory to the young man.

"And now," said he, as he pulled out the gloves and laid them gravely in
her lap, "we're invited out to dinner."

"Invited out to dinner!" gasped the girl.

"Yes. It's rather a providential thing to have happened, I think. The
telephone was ringing as I opened the door, and Mrs. Parker Bowman, to
whose house I was invited, was asking for my sister to fill the place of
an absent guest. My sister is away, and I tried to beg off. I told her I
had accidentally met--I hope you will pardon me--I called you a friend."

"Oh!" she said. "That was kind of you."

"I said you were a stranger in town, and as I was your only acquaintance,
I felt that I should show you the courtesy of taking you to a hotel, and
assisting to get you off on the night train; and I asked her to excuse me,
as that would give her an even number. But it seems she had invited some
one especially to meet me, and was greatly distressed not to have her full
quota of guests, so she sent you a most cordial invitation to come to her
at once, promising to take dinner with you some time if you would help her
out now. Somehow, she gathered from my talk that you were travelling, had
just returned from abroad, and were temporarily separated from your
friends. She is also sure that you are musical, and means to ask you to
help her out in that way this evening. I told her I was not sure whether
you could be persuaded or not, and she mercifully refrained from asking