have eyes like steel never make allowances for those who haven't!"

She got no further, for quite suddenly Trevor Mordaunt dropped his
self-restraint like an impeding cloak and caught her to his heart. For
the fraction of a second her fear came back, she almost made as if she
would resist him; and then in a moment it was gone, lost in a wonder that
left no room for anything else. For he kissed her, once and once only, so
passionately, so burningly, so possessively, that it seemed to Chris as
if, without her own volition, even half against her will, she thereby
became his own. He had dominated her, he had won her, almost before she
had had time to realize that there was a stranger within her gates.

CHAPTER III

THE WARNING

"Well, all I have to say is, 'Bravo, young un!'" Rupert Wyndham stretched
out a careless arm and encircled his sister's waist therewith. She was
perched on the arm of his chair, and she tweaked his ear airily in
response to this encouragement.

"Oh, you're pleased, are you?" she said. "That's very nice of you."

"Pleased is a term that does not express my feelings in the least," he
declared. "I am transported with delight. You are the last person I
should have expected to retrieve the family fortunes, but you have done
it right nobly. I'm told the fellow is as rich as Croesus. It's to be
hoped that he is quite resigned to the fact that he is going to have
plenty of relations when he marries. By the way, hasn't he any of his
own?"

"None that count--only cousins and things. Such a mercy!" said Chris.
"And oh, Rupert, isn't it a blessing now that we never managed to sell
Old Park, or even to let it? We shall be able to live there ourselves and
turn it into a perfect paradise."

"He wants to buy it, eh?" Rupert glanced up keenly.

Chris nodded. "It's only in the clouds at present. He said something
about giving it to me when we marry. But of course," rather hastily,
"we're not going to be married for ever so long. It would have to belong
to him till then. He is going to talk to you about it presently. You
wouldn't object, would you? You are entitled to your share now, he says,
and Max will come into his directly. But Noel's will have to go into
trust till he is of age."

"An excellent idea!" declared Rupert. "I'm damnably hard up, as your
worthy _fiance_ has probably divined. But why this notion of not getting
married for ever so long? I don't quite follow the drift of that."

"Oh,