way she greeted him graciously, inspecting him with critical but
favorable eyes.

"Really, you do look quite distinguished," was her verdict, as she took
his arm in her progress towards her dinner. "I am sure Mabel will say
so, too."

Whereupon they reverted once more to Mabel. The maid was bathing Mabel's
eyes with witch-hazel and trying to persuade her to eat a little hot
soup. Such details about Mabel seemed to be regarded as of first
importance. By some mysterious reasoning, too, Mrs. Allen appeared to
connect them with Decatur Brown and his presence at Ocean Park.

"To-morrow night, if all goes well, you shall see her," she whispered,
exultantly, in his ear, as they left the dining-hall.

Decatur was puzzled. What if he _could_ see Mabel the next night? Or
what if he could not? He should survive, even if the event were
indefinitely postponed. What he desired just then was that Jane should
accompany him on an early-evening tramp down the board walk.

"Wouldn't it be better to wait until to-morrow evening?" asked Jane.
"Perhaps Mabel can go then."

"The deuce take Mabel!" He half smothered the exclamation, and Jane
appeared not to hear, yielding at last to his insistence that they start
at once. But it was not the kind of a talk he had hoped to have with
Jane Temple. The intimate and personal ground of conversation towards
which he sought to draw her she avoided as carefully as if it had been
stuck with the "No Trespassing" notices. When they returned to the