Yes; he was not mistaken. The engraving was of the eight-hundred-ton
yacht ~Idalia~, belonging to "that prince of good fellows, Midas of
the money market, and society's pink of perfection, J. Ward Tolliver."

Slowly sipping his black coffee, Geddie read the column of print.
Following a listed statement of Mr. Tolliver's real estate and bonds,
came a description of the yacht's furnishings, and then the grain of
news no bigger than a mustard seed. Mr. Tolliver, with a party of
favored guests, would sail the next day on a six weeks' cruise along
the Central American and South American coasts and among the Bahama
Islands. Among the guests were Mrs. Cumberland Payne and Miss Ida
Payne, of Norfolk.

The writer, with the fatuous presumption that was demanded of him
by his readers, had concocted a romance suited to their palates.
He bracketed the names of Miss Payne and Mr. Tolliver until he had
well-nigh read the marriage ceremony over them. He played coyly and
insinuatingly upon the strings of "~on dit~" and "Madame Rumor" and
"a little bird" and "no one would be surprised," and ended with
congratulations.

Geddie, having finished his breakfast, took his papers to the edge
of the gallery, and sat there in his favorite steamer chair with his
feet on the bamboo railing. He lighted a cigar, and looked out upon
the sea. He felt a glow of satisfaction at finding he was so little
disturbed by what he had read. He told himself that he had conquered
the distress that had sent him, a voluntary exile, to this far land
of the lotus. He could never forget Ida, of course; but there was
no longer any pain in thinking about her. When they had had that