l be fun!"

There was a long silence.

"Is my helmet on straight?" said Sam.

Billie made no reply. She was looking before her down the hedge-bordered
road. Always a girl of sudden impulses, she had just made a curious
discovery, to wit that she was enjoying herself. There was something so
novel and exhilarating about this midnight ride that imperceptibly her
dismay and resentment had ebbed away. She found herself struggling with
a desire to laugh.

"Lochinvar!" said Sam suddenly. "That's the name of the chap I've been
trying to think of! Did you ever read about Lochinvar? 'Young Lochinvar'
the poet calls him rather familiarly. He did just what I'm doing now,
and everybody thought very highly of him. I suppose in those days a
helmet was just an ordinary part of what the well-dressed man should
wear. Odd how fashions change!"

Till now dignity and wrath combined had kept Billie from making any
inquiries into a matter which had excited in her a quite painful
curiosity. In her new mood she resisted the impulse no longer.

"_Why_ are you wearing that thing?"

"I told you. Purely and simply because I can't get it off. You don't
suppose I'm trying to set a new style in gents' head-wear, do you?"

"But why did you ever put it on?"

"Well, it was this way. After I came out of the cupboard in the
drawing-room...."

"What!"

"Didn't I tell you about that? Oh yes, I was sitting in the cupboard in
the drawing-room from dinner-time onwards. After that I came out and
started cannoning about among Aunt Adeline's china, so I thought I'd
better switch the light on. Unfortunately I switched on some sort of
musical instrument instead. And then somebody started shooting. So, what
with one thing and another, I thought it would be best to hide
somewhere. I hid in one of the suits of armour in the hall."

"Were you inside there all the time we were...?"

"Yes. I say, that was funny about Bream, wasn't it? Getting under the
bed, I mean."

"Don't let's talk about Bream."

"That's the right spirit! I like to see it! All right, we won't. Let's
get back to the main issue. Will you marry me?"

"But why did you come to the house at all?"

"To see you."

"To see me! At that time of night?"

"Well, perhaps not actually to see you." Sam was a little perplexed for
a moment. Something told him that it would be injudicious to reveal his
true motive and thereby risk disturbing the harmony which he felt had
begun to exist between t