rlos with great earnestness. "You will be
mine, dear heart, before the Spring flowers have finished blooming."

"Oh, please don't start being absurd again, just after promising to be
sensible!" protested Myra.

"You will be mine, dear heart, before the Spring flowers have finished
blooming," repeated Don Carlos. "Sweet lady, you may take that as
another promise made in all seriousness. I love you, and I have
sworn----"

"Let's change the subject, Don Carlos," interrupted Myra again.
"Oblige me by making your promise not to make love to me date from this
minute."

"As you will, beloved," said Don Carlos, with an exaggerated sigh; and
Myra could not decide whether or not he was laughing.

CHAPTER V

His demeanour as her fellow guest at Tony Standish's shooting lodge at
Auchinleven, where he arrived about the middle of August, piqued and
perplexed Myra. Not only did Don Carlos keep his promise to refrain
from making love to her, but he seemed to avoid her as much as
possible, and was only formally polite when they happened to be thrown
together.

Yet he made love to practically all the other ladies of the party, and
obviously set the hearts of several of the younger ones fluttering.
Myra tried to persuade herself she was thankful to be relieved of his
ardent attentions, but at heart she was annoyed to find herself ignored.

"I suppose he is proving that he was only amusing himself and that his
fervent love-making was mere pretence," reflected Myra. "He is making
my complaint about him seem absurd. Bother the man! I have half a
mind to try to make him fall in love with me in earnest, and then take
the conceit out of him by telling him I have only been amusing myself
at his expense."

What added to her inward vexation was the fact that Don Carlos appeared
to have won the good opinion of all the other men of the party, and had
completely ingratiated himself with Tony Standish, who constantly
talked about him with enthusiasm and spent much time in his company.

"Have you offended Don Carlos in some way, Myra?" Lady Fermanagh
inquired one night. "I notice he seems to avoid you as much as
possible, and yet he and Tony have become great friends."

"I think Don Carlos is the most exasperating man in the world, aunt,
and it is most annoying that Tony should make such a fuss of him after
what happened," responded Myra, half-petulantly. "It would serve Tony
right if I threw him over. It is exasperating t