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he’s going to.” He hurried her to the elevator and up to their suite, strode to the telephone, and brusquely asked for a number.
    When a voice replied at the other end, Dustin asked for Mr. Voorland . In a moment he said curtly, “ Voorland ? Dustin. Where the devil is that bracelet you promised to deliver this afternoon?”
    He listened a moment, and the lines of anger gradually smoothed out of his face. “I see. Then we’ll expect it right away. Have him bring it straight up to our suite.” He hung up and said, “It’s all right, Ceil. Everything is fine. The check cleared through his bank this afternoon and he held up delivery until we were here to sign for it.”
    “Oh, that’s wonderful, Mark,” she cried, and rushed into his arms.
    Mark put her away from him, saying, “I’ll take a quick shower and be ready to sign when the bracelet comes,” and went into the bathroom. He returned to the living-room in a few minutes clothed in formal evening attire.
    The buzzer sounded while Celia was in the tub. She listened to a mumble of voices in the outer room when Dustin answered it. She heard the door close firmly, and Mark came into the bathroom with the jewel case open.
    The bracelet was more beautiful than Celia remembered. Tears of joy filled her blue eyes and spilled out to join the trickle of water on her face. Mark bent down to kiss her damp and flushed cheek before leaving the bathroom.
    Celia dressed carefully in a new ice-blue evening gown she had chosen especially to wear with the bracelet—a clinging, lustrous gown, its strapless bodice supported only by her breasts, molding itself daringly about her hips. Her braids were a bright crown around her small head, her lips as red as the rubies themselves. She arose from the dressing-table and went over to the full-length mirror to clasp the bracelet on her wrist, then moved sedately into the living-room for Mark’s approval.
    Mark was sitting in a deep chair, his head back, staring at the ceiling. Celia cleared her throat delicately. He looked at her, then sprang up and came to her to take both her outstretched hands. “You’re beautiful. The bracelet was made just for you.”
    He wanted her to wear it to dinner, but Celia flatly refused. “I’m going to be sensible about wearing it, even if you aren’t,” she declared. Her tone was mature. She removed the jewel lingeringly and they went into the bedroom together to place it in the case. “I’m even afraid to leave it here while we go out to dinner,” she told him in a small, dismayed voice.
    Mark Dustin laughed indulgently and took the tooled leather casket from her hands. “We’re going to put it right here in the top drawer of your dressing-table and forget about it. Good Lord, Ceil, you act as though you think a gang of international jewel thieves is lurking in the corridors outside just waiting for a chance to snatch it.”
    “You don’t know but what they are,” she defended. “I don’t care how rich you are, we can’t afford to be careless with the bracelet. I think we should lock it in the hotel safe while we’re out to dinner.”
    “Nonsense. Get your wrap. Doing a thing like that would only draw attention to its value. We’ll put it in the safe after we come home tonight if that will make you happier.”
    Celia had to be content with that promise, though the pleasure of having dinner at a table beside the ocean with Mark was spoiled. Neither the stars nor the faint moonlight nor the gay chatter all around her on the boardwalk cafe could dispel her fierce desire to get back upstairs and assure herself that her beautiful bracelet was safe in the drawer.
    When they returned to the hotel suite, she ran swiftly to her dressing-table and breathed a long sigh of relief when she snapped the box open and saw the jewel inside the chest, just as Mark had placed it there.
    Mark stood in the doorway grinning at her, but she knew he was secretly pleased that she cared so much for her