you marry me?"

"Is this a proposal?" She laughed nervously.

"Sounds like it," he admitted.

She was silent for several moments. Into her eyes there had come
something of that look which had sent Lady Mary into her room to write
to Captain Vandermere, and bid him come without delay. The color had
gone. She seemed suddenly older--tired.

"Oh, I don't know!" she said. "I think I should like to, but I
can't!--no, I can't!"

They began to descend the hill. He kept his arm in hers.

"Why not?" he asked. "Don't you care for me?"

"I--I don't know," she answered. "I don't know whether I care for
anybody. Wait, please. Don't speak to me for several moments."

Their path skirted the side of a ploughed field, and then through a
little gate they passed into a long, straggling plantation. Directly
she was under the shelter of the trees, she burst into tears.

"Don't come near me," she begged. "Leave me alone for a moment. I
shall be better directly."

He disregarded her bidding to the extent of placing his arm around her
waist. He made no attempt, however, to draw her hands away from her
face, or stop her tears.

"Little girl," he said, "I knew that there was some trouble. It is
there in your dear, innocent little face for anyone to see who cares
enough about you to look. When you have dried those eyes, you must
tell me all about it. Remember that even if you won't have me for a
husband, we are old enough friends for you to look upon me as an elder
brother."

She dried her eyes, and looked up at him with a hopeless little smile.

"You are a dear," she said, "and I am very fond of you. I don't know
what's happened to me--at least I do know, but I can't tell anyone."

"Is it," he asked gravely, "that you care about this person?"

"Oh, I don't know!" she answered. "I hope not. I don't know, I'm sure.
Sometimes I feel that I do, and sometimes, when I am sane, when I am
in my right mind, I know that I do not. Maurice," she begged, "help
me. Please help me."

His face cleared.

"I'll help you right enough, little girl," he answered. "Just listen
to me. I'm not going to see you throw yourself away upon an outsider.
Just remember that. On the other hand, I'm not going to bother you
to death. Here I am by your side, and here I mean to stay. If
that--no, I won't call him names!" he said, stopping short in his
sentence--"but if anyone tries to make you unhappy, well, I shall have
something to say. Come along, let's fini