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Show 2d2 lln'l!tbfng wftbfn 'Reason ISllll lllose anll SII1ler "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. Toldmewhat?" "Why, that after we're married, 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 'vefelt 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 'II come back to us, if you ask him to." "Probably," she assented, coldly. "I suppose we 'II be in town for the Winters. won't we, and only live here in the Summer?" "I don't know, dear; we 'II 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 millionaire,s." "Could I have an automobile?" "Perhaps. What kind?" "ltbe "ltbtrttetb of 3une "A big red touring car, with room for four or five people in it?" "I 'II 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 brass, drew up before the Kent's door, having come out from town on its own power. 20J |