hands--I could see in one of the mirrors that I looked awfully nice,
and that helped!--I clasped my hands, and I looked right into his
eyes, and I said, quietly, you know, 'Owen,' I said 'I'm going to
tell you the truth. You ask me why I don't care for Jim; this is the
reason. I like you too much to care for any other man that way. I
don't want you to say anything now, Owen,' I said, 'or to think I
expect you to tell me that you have always cared for me. That'd be
too FLAT. And I'm not going to say that I'll never care for anyone
else, for I'm only twenty, and I don't know. But I couldn't see so
much of you, Owen,' I said, 'and not care for you, and it seems as
natural to tell you so as it would for me to tell another girl. You
worry sometimes because you can't remember your father,' I said,
'and because your mother is so undemonstrative with you; but I want
you to think, the next time you feel sort of out of it, that there
is a woman who really and truly thinks that you are the best man in
the world--'"

Mrs. Salisbury had risen to a sitting position; her eyes, fixed upon
her daughter's face, were filled with utter horror.

"You are not serious, my child!" she gasped. "Alexandra, tell me
that this is some monstrous joke--"

"Serious! I never was more serious in my life," the girl said
stoutly. "I said just that. It was easy enough, after I once got
started. And I thought to myself, even then, that if he didn't care
he'd be decent enough to say so honestly--"

"But, my child--my CHILD!" the mother said, beside herself with
outraged pride. "You cannot mean that you so far forgot a woman's