Ponsonby if you think she would permit the attentions of any man. She is not in the least that kind of person. She is one of the most dignified, self-respecting, high-minded women I ever knew.

" Mrs. Star cut him short with a wave of her fan. "Spare me the rhapsodies," she laughed.

"You merely mark the stage of the disease you have arrived at. The object of your love sits enthroned! If the husband is wise he will throw his fossils into the sea and come back to look after this pretty possession. Flesh and blood is worth more than dry bones.

" "Ponsonby is a botanist," Stephen corrected, grimly, while his inward thought was that the dry bones were Simeon's own; and then, ashamed of the disloyal-though unspoken-sneer, he went back to Deena and began talking volubly of his last letter from her husband. They had both had letters from Simeon, now safely arrived in the Straits of Magellan. He had written to Deena when they first cast anchor off the Fuegian shore.