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XXVII

JEAN TRANSFORMED

HERE did you spend the night, Jean?" asked Mary.

"In heaven/* answered Jean, her cheeks glowing.

"Nonsense."

"I mean exactly what I say, Mame. I lodged with an Indian princess, and ate my meals with a member of the British aristocracy. The princess couldn't speak English, but her brother acted as interpreter, so we got on all right. She is a slave of an old chief of the Seattles. I wish I had the money; I'd buy her, and send her back to her people."

"You might as well wish you owned the moon!"

"I own the earth,—as much of it as I need. Everybody does."

"Then the most of us get cheated out of our patrimony," laughed Sally O'Dowd.

"I wish you could all have had a chance to look in on me and my princess last night; we were as snug as two bugs in a rug. The crickets sang on the hearth, just as they used to do of nights in the old home. The wind roared like a storm at sea, and the rush of the river was grand. I can shut my eyes and live it all over again."

"You Ve gone stark mad!" laughed Hal.

"As mad as a March hare," said Sally O'Dowd. "I know the symptoms from sad experience."

"You ought to be repenting in sackcloth and ashes. Why are you not sorry? "asked Mary.

"Because in losing myself. I found my fate."

"Was it an Indian brave in a breech-cloth, with