A shadow passed over Sally's face, but she held her head high. "Yes, Jay, I remember. You were declared as my future husband. Isn't it a joke?"

His tone was earnest. "That's just it, Sally. It was a thoughtless wager made in the heat of the moment. I cannot, in all honesty, go through with a marriage based on a mere bet."

She stopped walking and looked at him, her eyes searching his face. "Do you mean to say, Jay, that you want to break off our engagement?"

He nodded, his voice quiet but firm. "Yes, Sally. I cannot marry you. It wouldn't be fair to either of us. Let us release each other from this hasty decision made in the excitement of the race."

Sally's eyes welled up with tears, but she blinked them back bravely. "I understand, Jay. It was all a game, a foolish game. I release you from any obligation towards me."

He reached out a hand towards her, a gesture of comfort. "Thank you, Sally. I hope you can forgive me for this mess. You deserve a man who truly values and cherishes you, not someone who was pushed into an unwanted commitment."

She smiled through her tears. "I forgive you, Jay. Let's forget this ever happened and move on as friends."

And as they walked back to the hotel, the weight of a false engagement lifted from their shoulders, leaving behind a bond of understanding and mutual respect."You say you want to talk to your betrothed," laughed the girl, with a toss of her yellow curls; "but you have maintained an unbroken silence for quite a time."

"I have been wondering how to begin speaking of the subject which weighs so heavily on my mind, and I think the best way is to break right into it."

"Yes," assented Sally; "so do I."

"It is about our betrothal," he began, brusquely. "I want to ask you a plain, frank question, Miss Pendleton, and I hope you will be equally as frank with me; and that is, do you consider what you are pleased to call your betrothal to me, and which I considered at the time only a girlish prank, actually binding?"

He stopped short in the wooded path they were treading, and looked her gravely in the face--a look that forced an answer. She was equal to the occasion.

"Of course I do, Mr. Gardiner," she cried, with a jolly little laugh that sounded 

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