"Very pretty," she said, in a small, thin voice, after an awkward pause.

"Why, dearest," he cried, "don't you like it?"

"It's well enough," she answered, slowly, "but not for an engagement ring. Everybody else has diamonds. I thought you cared enough for me to give me a diamond," she said, reproachfully.

"I do," he a.s.sured her, "and you shall have diamonds--as many as I can give you. Why, sweet, this is only the beginning. There's a long life ahead of us, isn't there? Do you think I'm never going to give my wife any jewels?"

"Aunt Francesca and Rose put you up to this," said Isabel, bitterly.

"They never want me to have anything."

"They know nothing whatever about it," he replied, rather coldly, taking it from her finger as he spoke. "Listen, Isabel. Would you rather have a diamond in your engagement ring?"

"Of course. I'd be ashamed to have anybody know that this was my engagement ring."

"All right," said Allison, with defiant cheerfulness. "You shall have just exactly what you want, and, to make sure, I'll take you with me when I go to get it. I'm sorry I made such a mistake."

There was a flash of blue and silver in the faint light, and a soft splash in the lily-pool. "There," he went on, "it's out of your way now."

"You didn't need to throw it away," she said, icily. "I didn't say I didn't want it, nor that I wouldn't wear it. I only said I wanted a diamond."

"It could be found, I suppose," he replied, thoughtfully, ashamed of his momentary impulse. "If the pool were drained--"

"That would cost more than the ring is worth," Isabel interrupted.

"Come, let's go in."

He was about to explain that a very good-sized pool could be drained for the price of the ring, but fortunately thought better of it, and was bitterly glad, now, that he had thrown it away.

In the house they talked of other things, but the thrust still lingered in his consciousness, unforgotten.

"How's your father?" inquired Isabel, in a conversational pause, as she could think of nothing else to say.

"All right, I guess. Why?"

"I haven't seen him lately. He hasn't been over since the day he called on me."

"Guess I haven't thought to ask him to come along. Dad is possessed just at present by a very foolish idea. They've told you, haven't they?"

"No. Told me what?"

"Why, that after we're carried, he's to come over here to live with Aunt Francesca and Rose, and give us the house to ourselves."

"I hadn't heard," she replied, indifferently.

"I don't know when I've felt so badly about anything," Allison resumed.

"We've always been together and we've been more like two chums than father and son. It's like taking my best friend away from me, but I know he'll come back to us, if you ask him to."

"Probably," she a.s.sented, coldly. "I suppose we'll be in town for the Winters, won't we, and only live here in the Summer?"

"I don't know, dear; we'll see. I've got to go to see my manager very soon, and Dad asked me to find out what you wanted for a wedding present. I'm to help him select it."

"Can I have anything I choose?" she queried, keenly interested now.

"Anything within reason," he smiled. "I'm sorry we're not millionaires."

"Could I have an automobile?"

"Perhaps. What kind?"

"A big red touring car, with room for four or five people in it?"

"I'll tell him. It would be rather nice to have one, wouldn't it?"

"Indeed it would," she cried, clapping her hands. "Oh, Allison, do persuade him to get it, won't you?"

"I won't have to, if he can. I've never had to persuade my father into anything he could do for me."

When he went home, Isabel kissed him, of her own accord, for the first time. It was a cold little kiss, accompanied with a whispered plea for the red automobile, but it set his heart to thumping wildly, and made him forget the disdained turquoise, that lay at the bottom of the lily- pool.

Within a few days, Isabel was the happy possessor of an engagement ring with a diamond in it--a larger, brighter stone than she had ever dreamed of having. Colonel Kent had also readily promised the automobile, though he did not tell Allison that he should be obliged to sell some property in order to acquire a really fine car. It took until the end of the month to make the necessary arrangements, but on the afternoon of the thirtieth, a trumpeting red monster, bright with bra.s.s, drew up before the Kent's door, having come out from town on its own power.

As the two men had taken a brief tour over the wonderful roads of France, with Allison at the wheel, he felt no hesitation in trying an unfamiliar car. The old throb of exultation came back when the monster responded to his touch and chugged out of the driveway on its lowest speed.

He turned back to wave his hand at his father, who stood smiling on the veranda, with the chauffeur beside him. "I'll get Isabel," he called, "then come back for you."

He reached Madame Bernard's without accident and Isabel, almost wild with joy, ran out of the gate to meet him and climbed in. Only Rose, from the shelter of her curtains, saw them as they went away.

"Where shall we go?" Isabel asked. She was hatless and the sun dwelt lovingly upon her shining black hair.

"Back for Dad. He's waiting for us. Do you like it, dear?"

"Indeed I do. Oh, so much! It was lovely of him, wasn't it? He wouldn't care, would he, if we took a little ride just by ourselves before we went back for him?"

"Of course not, but we can't go far and we'll have to go fast."

"I love to go fast. I've never been fast enough yet. I wonder if the Crosbys have got their automobile?"

"I heard so, but I haven't seen it. I understand that Romeo is learning to drive it in the narrow boundaries of the yard."

"What day of the month is it?"

"The thirtieth. There's less than three months to wait now, darling-- then you'll be mine, all mine."

"Then this is the day the Crosbys were going to celebrate--it's the anniversary of their uncle's death. I'm glad we've got our automobile.

Can't we go by there? It's only three miles, and I'd love to have them see us go by, at full speed."

Obediently, Allison turned into the winding road which led to Crosbys's and, to please Isabel, drove at the third speed. Once under way, the road spun dustily backward under the purring car, and the wind in their faces felt like the current of a stream.

"Oh," cried Isabel, rapturously; "isn't it lovely!"