y a snake. Nothing that
she had ever learned, either by direct precept from the old starling, or
as the result of her own observation of life, had prepared her to cope
with this. Outrageous as were his words and tone, she could only show
that she resented them by implicitly accusing him of making love to her;
and her flurried impulse was to shun that danger spot.

She laughed nervously. "You use very flowery language; I suppose you
learned it in Tibet," she said, and felt rather pleased with herself.

"One thing I learned in Tibet," he answered, "if I hadn't learned it
before, was that England is the most beautiful country in the world. I'm
not sure that I wouldn't give up all the excitement and adventure of my
life to settle down in a place like Graham's--or like this."

Cicely congratulated herself upon having turned the conversation. She
was ready to talk on this subject. "You wouldn't care for it very long,"
she said. "It is stagnation. I feel sometimes as if I would give
anything to get out of it."

He looked down at her with a smile. "And what would you like to do if
you could get out of it?" he asked.

"I should like to travel for one thing," she said. "If I were a man I
would. I wouldn't be content to settle down in a comfortable country
house to hunt foxes and shoot pheasants and partridges all my life."

"Like Graham, eh? Well, perhaps you are right. You're going to marry
Graham, aren't you?"

"No," she said shortly.

"He thinks you are," he said, with a laugh. "He's a good fellow, Graham,
but perhaps he takes too much for granted, eh? But I know you are not
going to marry Graham. I only asked you to see what you would say. You
are going to marry me, my little country flower."

"Mr. Mackenzie!" She put all the outraged surprise into her voice of
which she was capable, and stopped short in the path.

He stopped too, and faced her. His face was firmly set. "I have no time
to go gently," he said. "I ask straight out for what I want, and I want
you. Come now, don't play the silly miss. You've got a man to deal with.
I've done things already and I'm going to do more. You will have a
husband you can be proud of."

He was the type of the conquering male as he stood before her, dark,
lean, strong and bold-eyed. His speech, touched with a rough northern
burr, broke down defences. He would never woo gently, not if he had a
year to do it in. Men of his stamp do not ask their wives in marriage;
they take them