as he rather suspected, mr. king was destined to encounter a brief impediment in the person of stella’s father. who was mr. king? what did any one really know about him,[58] and why so much mystery about the future? but the answer was always simply: “why, utterbourne—your old friend captain utterbourne.” mr. meade’s position was certainly not a simple one, especially since he seemed to be the only one attempting, even hesitatingly, to stand in the way of true love. and, though he tried to see the situation all clearly and advise what seemed best, the worst of it was he felt mr. king’s peculiar fascination, too, in a sense, and so seemed unable to make up his mind as to the values of an unusual situation.

“stella,” he said, in his grave way, “are you sure—that’s the point—dead sure, girlie?”

and stella was thinking excitedly: “if father really makes a fuss, we’ll elope!” it was just the tang of fire which completed the romance of this whole unbelievable circumstance.

captain utterbourne, as a matter of fact, was inclined, in his faintly quizzical and even petulant way, to dissuasion, when he learned the length to which affairs had run. he tried delicately to ease his mind. meade was so simple.

“king’s all right, of course—h’m? though perhaps romantic....” it was as near as he could come to uttering platitudes like iago. “the trouble with king is, he’s too irresistible. how he’s managed to escape all these years is beyond my comprehension! i must say,” the captain complained, “it’s something of a calamity he should have chosen this particular time—h’m? but the man, it seems, refuses to listen to reason, just as the woman refuses. however,” he added, in a thin, hand-washing tone, “from your point of view i can see how it may appear something of a catch—h’m?” and he left, humming to a wild rose.

but at length the creases were quite ironed out. mr. meade called king into the back parlour and told him it was all right—though his voice broke just a little as he added: “i only want my girl to be happy.”

they were definitely to be married, and stella naturally didn’t have time for anything any more. even sleep was an indulgence almost crowded out. how life tore along!

one day she unexpectedly met jerome downtown. the contrast[59] between them was really startling. it seemed unbelievable a man so hopelessly obscure and a girl so conspicuously important could have been engaged to each other only a few short weeks ago. what a pace she had gone! but jerome, with the clip on his tie and his jaunty little pipe between his lips, looked more than ever irrevocably fixed in a certain niche. he tried still to flatter his ego into believing that, despite appearances, stella would be the heavier loser; but such flattery was obviously growing harder every day.

when they met, stella was bound for a tea engagement with elsa. indeed, just as they were speaking, elsa herself came along.

“ah?” she said, with cool uplifting voice and cool down-drooping eyes.

“oh, am i late, elsa?”

“no. but even if you were, a bride-to-be is always forgiven anything.” she gave jerome a glancing look.

“i’d like you to meet my friend miss utterbourne,” said stella, turning to jerome, and feeling that the situation might possibly develop embarrassments.

the two nodded formally, elsa’s eyes merely drooping a little more. then jerome felt so profoundly unhappy that he just mumbled something, raised his hat, and left them. but as he walked he unconsciously straightened his shoulders a little, and held his head surprisingly high.

“isn’t that the young man you threw over, stella?”

“yes, we were engaged for awhile,” stella replied with a tone of attempted lightness.

elsa gazed after him. “something tells me you’ll never see him again.”

her friend appeared rather startled. “what do you mean, elsa?”

“i don’t know,” the other shrugged. “the way his back looked, i guess. things come to me like that, and i always speak them out.”

“do you mean he might do something—something desperate?” faltered stella.

[60]

then elsa laughed. “no, little one, you miss my meaning. what i meant was he’d never give you another chance.” she chuckled cryptically.

“i suppose, in a way, it does look like rushing into matrimony,” observed stella happily, sipping her tea and trying to be convincingly sophisticated.

elsa stared in her blank way. “everybody admits he’s wonderful,” she etched. “still, to be perfectly frank, it does seem somewhat pell-mell, even assuming the man to be wealthy and—well, a kind of prince.” her eyes were whimsical. but since mr. king had to dash away to parts unknown in the star of troy, without giving any one a chance to catch one’s breath, was there anything to be done about it, after all? “parts unknown,” mused elsa. yes, rather a complete mystery, all round.

“i can’t tell you any more about it, elsa, because i don’t know any more. hasn’t your father even mentioned it?”

elsa smiled with not a little of the parental cynicism, though it flickered more warmly upon her kindlier mouth and in her cow-brown eyes. “i haven’t a bit of pull, dear child. the captain, though he’s a sort of an old dear, is just about as communicative as a clam, even with me.”

“whenever i say anything about it all,” admitted stella, but with shining eyes, “ferdinand tells me to remember what happened in the case of lohengrin. what did happen, do you remember?” she smiled.

still, though she had coaxed very prettily at times, especially toward the last, she had also come, perhaps even a bit consciously, as the closer intimacy developed, to live up to that doll-like ideal king seemed rather to nurse in his high-sailing heart. “leave everything to me, little lady,” he had urged, in his magnetic, irresistible fashion. “never you worry that dear little head of yours about business. it doesn’t belong in a woman’s sphere. does it, peaches? you just leave things to me, and if we’re successful in this deal, i’ll take you to paris and buy you all the hats in the rue de la paix!”

[61]

elsa warned her young friend against “letting any man make a ninny” of her. “you seem to be quite hypnotized, stella. it’s all very well,” she observed, her eyes drooping so much that it looked as though she were pulling the corners down with her fingers, “to let a man think he can run his business without you to begin with. they always lead off like that. but unless you mean to be a traitor to your sex, you can’t begin too soon letting it be known (i don’t care if he is a prince!) that the old lord-and-master idea has been converted into a sieve.” she paused, then smilingly dropped in an extra lump. “it’s because i refuse to be a traitor that i’m no longer wearing my engagement ring.”

“what!” cried stella in real dismay.

elsa held up the vacant finger with a philosophic grimace.

“but—”

“i’d rather not go into it now, if you don’t mind,” she half yawned. “it’s rather a boring business, and i’m trying to forget i was ever such a fool as to be taken in.”

“oh, but elsa—after starting off so splendidly—the dance....”

“well, isn’t it better to wake up now than too late? besides, it’s merely an episode. love is only an episode, little one. don’t you hang on so hard to your dangerous ideals!”

and she reached across and pinched stella’s cheek in her vaguely rough way.