ive me," he said, then; "but are you actually in earnest?"

"Yes," she said again, and marvelled at her own daring.

His hold tightened upon her wrists. "You are a very brave girl," he said.

There was a baffling note in his tone, and she glanced up involuntarily.
To her intense relief she saw the quizzical, kindly look in his eyes
again.

"Will you allow me to say," he said, "that I don't think you were created
for a consolation prize?"

He spoke somewhat grimly, but his tone was not without humour. Molly sat
quite still in his hold. She had a feeling that she had grossly insulted
him, that she had made it his right to treat her exactly as he chose.

After a moment he set her quietly free.

"I see you are serious," he said. "If you weren't--it would be
intolerable. But do you actually expect me to take you at your word?"

She did not hesitate. "I wish you to," she said.

"You think you would be happy with me?" he pursued. "You know, I am
called eccentric by a good many."

"You are eccentric," said Molly, "or you wouldn't dream of marrying one
of us. As to being happy, it isn't my nature to be miserable. I don't
want to be a countess, but I do want to help my people. That in itself
would make me happy."

"Thank you for telling me the truth," Wyverton said, gravely. "I believe
I have suspected some of it from the first. And now listen. I asked your
sister to marry me--because I wanted her. But I will spoil no woman's
life. I will take nothing that does not belong to me. I shall set her
free."

He paused. Molly was looking at him expectantly. His face softened a
little under her eyes.

"As for you," he said, "I don't think you quite realize what you have
offered me--how much of yourself. It is no little thing, Molly. It is all
you have. A woman should not part with that lightly. Still, since you
have offered it to me, I cannot and do not throw it aside. If you are of
the same mind in six months from now, I shall take you at your word. But
you ought to marry for love, child--you ought to marry for love."

He held out his hand to her abruptly, and Molly, with a burning face,
gave him both her own.

"I can't think how I did it," she said, in a low voice. "But I--I am not
sorry."

"Thank you," said Lord Wyverton, and he stooped with an odd little smile,
and kissed first one and then the other of the hands he held.

* * * * *

No one, save Phyllis, knew of the contract made