did not enjoy it
altogether, did you?"

"In a way, yes. But--shall I be honest? I felt, too, as if, somehow, it
wasn't quite right; so much--what shall I call it?"

"So much of old Adam and the Garden? Sit down here for a moment, will
you?"

She trembled a little, and sat.

"I want to speak plainly and honestly to you," he said, looking
earnestly at her. "You know my history--about my wife who died in
Labrador, and all the rest?"

"Yes, they have told me."

"Well, I have nothing to hide, I think; nothing more that you ought to
know: though I've been a scamp one way and another."

"'That I ought to know'?" she repeated.

"Yes: for when a man asks a woman to be his wife, he should be prepared
to open the cupboard of skeletons." She was silent; her heart was
beating so hard that it hurt her.

"I am going to ask you to be my wife, Delia."

She was silent, and sat motionless, her hands clasped in her lap.

He went on

"I don't know that you will be wise to accept me, but if you will take
the risk--"

"Oh, Gaston, Gaston!" she said, and her hands fluttered towards his.

An hour later, he said to her, as they parted for the night:

"I hope, with all my heart, that you will never repent of it, Delia."

"You can make me not repent of it. It rests with you, Gaston; indeed,
indeed, all with you."

"Poor girl!" he said, unconsciously, as he entered his room. He could
not have told why he said it. "Why will you always sit up for me,
Brillon?" he asked a moment afterwards.

Jacques saw that something had occurred. "I have nothing else to do,
sir," he replied. "Brillon," Gaston added presently, "we're in a devil
of a scrape now."

"What shall we do, monsieur?"

"Did we ever turn tail?"

"Yes, from a prairie fire."

"Not always. I've ridden through."

"Alors, it's one chance in ten thousand!"

"There's a woman to be thought of--Jacques."

"There was that other time."

"Well, then?"

Presently Jacques said: "Who is she, monsieur?"

Gaston did not answer. He was thinking hard. Jacques said no more.
The next morning early the guests knew who the woman was, and by noon
Jacques also.

CHAPTER XI. HE MAKES A GALLANT CONQUEST

Gaston let himself drift. The game of love and marriage is exciting, the
girl was affectionate and admiring, the world was genial, and all things
came his way. Towards the end of the hunting season Captain Maudsley
had an accident. It would prevent him riding to hounds aga