formal call on you--but that's the result I'm after."

They had paused, to finish this colloquy, a few feet away from the
ladies, who were regarding with dark suspicion this interchange of
lowered tones.

Suddenly Arlee raised her eyes and gave Billy a quick look,
questioning, shyly serious.

"I shall be here--and you can call on me," she promised, and bade
him farewell.

She left him deliriously, inexplicably, foolishly in spirits. He
plunged his hands in his pockets and squared his shoulders; he
wanted to whistle, he wanted to sing, he wanted to do anything to
vent the singular hilarity which possessed him.

Then he saw, across the room, a sandy-haired young man regarding him
with dour intentness, and the spectacle, instead of feeding his joy,
sent conjecturing chills down his spine. His bubble was pricked.
Suppose, ran the horrid thought, suppose she was simply paying off
the Englishman? Girls, even blue-eyed, angel-haired girls of
cherubic aspect, have not been unknown to perform such deeds of
darkness! And this particular girl had mischief in her eyes.... The
thought was unpleasantly likely. What had he, Billy B. Hill, of New
York--State--to offer to casual view worthy of competition with the
presumable advantages of a young Englishman whose sister was staying
with a Lady Claire? Perhaps the fellow himself had a title....

Considerably dashed, he went out to consult the register upon that