at he was being
very diplomatic indeed. And Lady Mary had begged him to find out
whatever was the matter with poor dear Lois!

"Well," he said, "I am glad to hear it. To tell you the truth, I have
been very jealous lately."

"You jealous!" she exclaimed, mockingly.

"Fact, I assure you," he answered.

"Captain Maurice Vandermere jealous!" she repeated, looking up at him
with dancing eyes--"absolutely the most popular bachelor in London!
And jealous of me, too!"

"Is that so very wonderful, Lois?" he asked. "We have been pretty good
friends, you know."

She felt his hand upon her arm, and she looked away.

"Yes," she said, "we have been friends, only we haven't seen much of
one another the last month or so, have we?"

"It hasn't been my fault," he declared. "I really couldn't get leave
before, although I tried hard. I shouldn't have been here now, to tell
you the truth, Lois," he went on, "but Lady Mary's been frightening me
a bit."

"About me?" Lois asked.

"About you," he assented.

"What has she been saying?"

"Well, nothing definite," Captain Vandermere answered, "but of course
you know she's an awful good pal of mine, and she did write me a line
or two about you. It seems there's some young fellow been about down
here whom she isn't very stuck on, and she seemed to be afraid----"

"Well, go on," Lois said calmly.

"Well, that he was making the running with you a bit," Captain
Vandermere declared, feeling that he was getting into rather deeper
waters. "Of course, I don't know anything about him, and I don't want
to say anything against anybody who is a friend of yours, but from all
that I have heard he didn't seem to me to be the sort of man I fancied
for my little friend Lois to get--well, fond of."

"So you decided to come down yourself," Lois continued.

"I decided to come down and say something which I ought to have said
some time ago," Captain Vandermere continued, "only you see you are
really only a child, and you've got a lot more money than I have, and
you are not of age yet, so I thought I'd let it be for a bit. But you
know I'm fond of you, Lois."

"Are you?" she asked, artlessly.

"You must know that," he continued, bending over her. "I wonder----"

"Are you aware that we are standing on the top of a hill," Lois said,
"and that everybody for a good many miles round has a perfectly clear
view of us?"

"I don't care where we are," he declared. "I have got to go on now.
Lois, will