Page 28 (1/2)

"I don't know then," he confessed with some helplessness

"I'll tell you what I've alanted to be called," said she, "ever

since I was a little girl It is 'Mary'"

"Mary!" he cried, astonished "Why, it is such a common name"

"It is a beautiful name," she asserted "Say it over Aren't the

syllables soft and ? It is a lovely nairl as named Mary, and who

didn't like it When she caed it, but she

didn't dare to break it to the faned herself 'Mae' Her father wrote back, 'My dear

daughter, if the nah for you,

cohed at the recollection

"Then you have been away to school?" asked the young man

"Yes," she replied shortly

She adroitly led him to talk of himself He told her naively of New

York and tennis, of brake parties and clubs, and even afternoon teas

and balls, all of which, of course, interested a Western girl

exceedingly In this it so happened that his immaturity showed more

plainly than before He did not boast openly, but he introduced

extraneous details iton the painter, and Brookes the writer, merely in a casual

fashion, but with just the faintest flourish It somehow became known

that his fah; in short, that

he was a de Laney on both sides He liked to tell it to this girl,

because it was evidently fresh and new to her, and because in the