uffer her to
do anything further.

"I believe you have done too much as it is," he said, "and after dinner I
shall have something to show you."

She yielded readily enough. She certainly was tired. "I feel as if to-day
had lasted for about six weeks," she said.

But her animation did not wane in spite of this, and she would even have
returned to her labours after they had dined had Mordaunt permitted it.
He was firm upon this point, however, and again without protest she
yielded.

"You were going to show me something. What was it?"

"To be sure," he said. "I was going to show you how to write a cheque.
Come over to the writing-table and see how it is done."

Chris went, looking mystified. "But I shall never write cheques, Trevor,"
she said.

"No? Why not?"

He drew up a chair for her and knelt down beside her.

"You are a woman of property now, Chris," he said, and laid a new
cheque-book on the pad in front of her.

Chris gazed at it, wide-eyed. "But, Trevor, I haven't got any money at
the bank, have I?"

"Plenty," he said, with a smile--"in fact, a very large sum indeed which
will have to be invested in your name. That we will go into another day,
but for present needs, if you are wanting money--"

"Yes?" said Chris eagerly.

He put a pen into her hand and opened the cheque-book.

She slipped her arm round his neck. "Trevor, I--I don't feel as if you
ought. I--of course I--knew you would make me an allowance, but--but--you
ought not to give me a lot of money all my own."

"My darling," he said gently, "don't forget that you are my wife, will
you?"

She smiled a little shyly. "Do you know--I had forgotten--quite!"

He put his arm about her as she sat. "You must try to remember it, dear,
because it's rather important. I know I might have made you an allowance,
but I prefer that you should be independent. Only, Chris, I am going to
ask a promise of you; and I want you to make it at the very beginning of
our life together. That is why I have spoken on our wedding-night."

"Yes?" whispered Chris.

She had begun to tremble a little, and he pressed her to him
reassuringly. "I want you to promise me that you will never run into
debt, that if for any cause you find that you have not enough of your own
you will come to me at once and tell me."

He spoke with grave kindness, watching her face the while. But Chris's
eyes did not meet his own. She was rolling the pen he had given her up
and down the blott