she's sound asleep! The ideal
chaperon, isn't she?'

'I don't know,' Margaret answered lightly, and she glanced at Madame De
Rosa, as if she thought of waking her.

'Excuse me, you do; for if I were "some one else" you would be
delighted that she should be asleep. But that's not the question. As I
cannot surprise you into--there's no harm in saying it!--into loving
me, I'm driven to use what they call the "arts of persuasion"! But in
order to persuade, it's necessary to inspire confidence. Do you
understand?'

'Vaguely!'

'Have I succeeded at all?' His voice changed suddenly as he asked the
question.

'I don't know why I should distrust you, I'm sure,' Margaret answered
gravely. 'You are certainly very outspoken,' she continued more
lightly, as if wishing to keep the conversation from growing serious.
'In fact, I never knew anything like your frankness!'

'I'm in earnest, and I don't wish to leave the least doubt in your
mind. You are the first woman I have ever met whom I wanted to marry,
and you are likely to be the last. I'm not a boy and I know the world
as you can never know it, even if you insist upon going on the stage.
I'm not amazingly young, for I'm five-and-thirty, and I suppose I have
had as large a share of what the world holds as most rich men. That is
my position. Until I met you, I thought I had really had everything.
When I knew you I found that I had never had the only thing worth
having at all.'

He spoke quietly, without the least affectation of feeling, or the
smallest apparent attempt to make an impression upon her; but it was
impossible not to believe that he was speaking the truth. Margaret was
silent, and looked steadily at an imaginary point in the distance.

'So far,' he said, in the same tone, 'I have always got what I wanted.
I don't mean to say,' he continued quickly, as she made a movement,
'that I expected you to accept me when I asked you to marry me, at our
second meeting. I was sure you would not. I merely put in a claim--that
was all.'

Margaret turned a little and rested her elbow on the back of her chair,
facing him.

'And I told you there was some one else. Do you understand clearly? I
am frank, too. I love another man, and he loves me.'

'And you are going to be married, I suppose?' said Logotheti, his lids
contracting a very little.

'I hope so. Some day.'

'Ah! There is an obstacle. I see. A question of fortune, I daresay?'

'No.' Her tone was meant to disco