" Yes," she interrupted again, " I remember ; but it wasn't your fault. That blundering waiter shouldn't have dropped that banana peel on the floor. I felt so sorry for you." " You do not seem to understand. I was going to say that dur ing the evening I became much attached to --" " Yes, how unfortunate. It seemed as though fate were against you that night. Not satisfied with your fall, it caused you to be come inextricably tangled in the window curtains." " Confound it," he exclaimed, half angrily, " why will you li - ever understand what lam driving at ? Listen, now. At first sight of you, I " You mistook me for an acquaintance, and spoke to me, and we had not yet met. Well you need not have minded that, for you know I pardoned the mistake at once. It was simply another case of mistaken identity." The young man was silent for a few moments, at a loss to know how to begin again. She seemed to be trying to keep him from speaking of the thoughts that were nearest his heart. He resolved to make one more attempt. " Nell," he said, slowly. " I believe you are playing with me; that you are amusing yourself at my expense." He could not see her face, half hidden in her hands, and con cealed by the darkness, but he felt the seat give a queer trembling motion. At the same moment, the moon appeared over the top of the great bronze monument, casting a halo of light on the head of the Country's Father, and brightening up all the surroundings with its silvery sheen, Instinctively he glanced at his fair companion, She was slyly watching him through her parted fingers, and her face was con vulsed with suppressed laughter. Hq saw it all in an instant, and then spoke again. " Nell, darling, I love you. That is what I have been trying to tell you all this time. May I hope that it is returned ? " As if in answer, she gave a little, suppressed scream. " What's the matter now ? " lie inquired anxiously, moving in voluntary closer to her. "My hair," she replied, " Somehow it has become tangled in the twigs on this limb behind me, and I can't get it loose." " Let me undo it," he said quickly, suiting the action to the The Free Lance. [APRIL,
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