rst-rate man when he gets to work, and has something to
think about besides his beautiful self. America'll knock the nonsense
out of him. At the end of two years, it will be another man who comes
home, a _man_ instead of a boy, just as you will probably be a woman
instead of a girl. It's the most critical time in life, when that
change is taking place, and you'd better believe I know what I'm talking
about. If I were in your place I'd move mountains, Patricia, if
mountains had to be moved, but I'd make sure that the man I loved didn't
go through it apart from me!"

"But if the mountain happened to be an uncle, and the uncle had done
everything, and was willing to go on doing everything, and was older and
wiser, and knew better than you? Oh, dearie me," concluded Pixie
impatiently, "_everybody_ seems against me! I'm lectured and thwarted
on every side, I've not been brought up to it, and it's most depressing.
And it's not a bit of good, either; it's my own life, and I shall do as
I like. And what about yourself, me dear? You are very brave about
lecturing me. Suppose _I_ take a turn! Why are you going back to
America and leaving Robert Carr behind? What have you been doing to
him?"

"I asked him to marry me, and he refused."

Pixie sat stunned with surprise and consternation. Honor's voice had
been flat and level as usual, not a break or quiver had broken its flow,
but there was a pallor round the lips, a sudden sharpening of the
features, which spoke eloquently enough, and smote the hearer to the
heart.

"Oh, me dear, forgive me!" she cried deeply. "I'm ashamed. Don't say
any more. I'd no right to ask."

"I meant to tell you. I'd have told you in any case. You guessed how
it was when we were here. You can't be in love like that and _not_ show
it.--I thought of him all day; I dreamt of him all night ... when he was
out of the room I was wretched; when he came in I knew it by instinct;
before I could see him I knew it! In a crowded room I could hear every
word he said, see every movement. ... When I was sitting alone, and
heard his voice in the distance, my heart leapt--it made me quite faint.
I _loved_ him, Pixie!"

Pixie sat staring with startled gaze. She did not speak, and for a
moment it seemed that her thoughts had wandered from the story on hand,
for her eyes had an _inward_ look, as though she were puzzling out a
problem which concerned herself alone. She started slightly as Honor
aga