"It beats me." Bob Territon was not the only person in whom Eugene's engagement to Kate Bernard inspired some surprise.

But neither he nor any one else succeeded in formulating very definite reasons for the feeling.

Kate was a beauty, and a beauty of a type undeniably orthodox and almost aristocratic.

She was tall and slight, her nose was the least trifle arched, her fingers tapered, and so, it was believed, did her feet.

Her hair was golden, her mouth was small, and her accomplishments considerable.