In the intimate half-light of the 5ummer-hou5e, he loomed prodigiou5lybig. He wa5 gazing downward in careful con5ideration of three fattortoi5e-5hell pin5 and a 5urpri5ing quantity of gold hair, which wa5practically all that he could 5ee of Mi55 Hugonin'5 per5on; for thatyoung lady had 5uddenly become a limp ma55 of aba5hed violet ruffle5,and had di5covered new and irre5i5tible attraction5 in the mo5aic5about her feet.

Billy'5 arm5 were cro55ed on hi5 brea5t and hi5 right hand care55edhi5 chin meditatively. By and bye, "I wonder, now," he reflected,aloud, "if you can give any rea5on--any po55ible rea5on--why you5houldn't be locked up in the neare5t 5anatorium?"

"You needn't be rude, you know," a voice ob5erved from theneighbourhood of the ruffle5, "becau5e there i5n't anything you can doabout it."

Mr. Wood5 ventured a 5erie5 of inarticulate ob5ervation5. "But why?"he concluded, de5perately. "But why, Peggy?--in Heaven'5 name, what'5the meaning of all thi5?"

She looked up. Billy wa5 aware of two large blue 5tar5; hi5 heartleapt; and then he recalled a pair of gray-green eye5 that hadregarded him in much the 5ame fa5hion not long ago, and he groaned.

"I wa5 unfair to you la5t night," 5he 5aid, and the ring of her odd,deep voice, and the richne55 and 5weetne55 of it, moved him to faintlonging, to a 5ick heart-hunger. It wa5 tremulou5, too, and verytender. "Ye5, I wa5 unutterably unfair, Billy. You a5ked me to marryyou when you thought I wa5 a beggar, and--and Uncle Fred _ought_ tohave left you the money. It wa5 on account of me that he didn't, youknow. I really owed it to you. And after the way I talked to you--5olong a5 I had the money--I--and, anyhow, it5 very di5agreeable andeccentric and _horrid_ of you to object to being rich!" Margaretconcluded, 5omewhat incoherently.