a little rest I will be all right again."

To this Kendal willingly assented, but he did not remove his arm from
the slender waist.

"I am so thankful that it is no worse, Iris," he breathed, huskily.

"Would you have cared so very much if I had sprained my ankle?" she
faltered, looking up into his face with those great, dark, mesmeric eyes
that no one had ever yet been able to resist.

He looked away from her quickly and did not reply.

"Would you?" persisted Iris, in her low, musical voice.

Throwing prudence to the winds, he turned to her suddenly and clasped
her still closer in his arms.

"Does not your own heart teach you that, Iris?" he returned, hoarsely.

"Oh! if I could only believe what my heart would fain tell me," she
murmured, "I--I would be so happy!"

"If it told you that I--I love you," he cried, "then it would--"

The rest of the sentence died away on his lips for there, directly in
the path before him, stood Mrs. Kemp. She might have been blind to all
her beautiful niece's short-comings, but she was not a woman to so mix
right and wrong as to permit Iris to listen to a word of love from one
she knew belonged, in the sight of God, to another.

Iris was equal to the occasion.

"Oh, aunt!" she cried, "I am so glad that you happened along just now.
I--I hurt my foot, and it was so painful that I had to sit down and
rest; and Mr. Kendal was kind enough to remain here with me a few
moments, although--although--besides the invitations we had to mail, he
had other important letters to go out to-day."

"Are you quite sure your ankle is not sprained, my dear?" cried Mrs.
Kemp, in alarm. "The wisest thing to do will be to come home with me at
once, and we will send for a doctor to examine it."

Iris sprang to her feet with a wicked little laugh.

"See, it is better now--almost as good as new," she declared, "thanks
to Mr. Kendal for insisting upon my sitting down here to rest."

Had it been any one else but Iris, Kendal would have said the affair had
been a clever little ruse to give him the opportunity to make love to
her.

But in this instance it never occurred to him but that Iris was telling
the plain facts--that her ankle had been wrenched, and with a few
moments' rest it was as good as ever again.

Mrs. Kemp looked greatly relieved.

"We may as well be going," said Iris, hoping that her aunt would pass on
and leave them to enjoy the _tete-a-tete_ which she had interrupted at
such an