“All right,” said Allison, with defiant cheerfulness.  “You shall have just exactly what you want, and, to make sure, I’ll take you with me when I go to get it.  I’m sorry I made such a mistake.”

There was a flash of blue and silver in the faint light, and a soft splash in the lily-pool.  “There,” he went on, “it’s out of your way now.”

“You didn’t need to throw it away,” she said, icily.  “I didn’t say I didn’t want it, nor that I wouldn’t wear it.  I only said I wanted a diamond.”

“It could be found, I suppose,” he replied, thoughtfully, ashamed of his momentary impulse.  “If the pool were drained—­”

“That would cost more than the ring is worth,” Isabel interrupted.  “Come, let’s go in.”

He was about to explain that a very good-sized pool could be drained for the price of the ring, but fortunately thought better of it, and was bitterly glad, now, that he had thrown it away.

In the house they talked of other things, but the thrust still lingered in his consciousness, unforgotten.

“How’s your father?” inquired Isabel, in a conversational pause, as she could think of nothing else to say.

“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.  Told me what?”

“Why, that after we’re carried, 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’ve felt 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’ll come back to us, if you ask him to.”

“Probably,” she assented, coldly.  “I suppose we’ll be in town for the Winters, won’t we, and only live here in the Summer?”

“I don’t know, dear; we’ll 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 millionaires.”

“Could I have an automobile?”

“Perhaps.  What kind?”

“A big red touring car, with room for four or five people in it?”

“I’ll 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.