eyes, giving her
almost a strained look. For the rest, her hair, smoothly brushed away
from her face, was in perfect order, her prim little hat was at exactly
the right angle, her little white tie alone relieved the sombreness of
her black jacket. She sighed and suddenly felt a moistening of her hot
eyes. She leaned far back into the corner of the cab.

CHAPTER VI

KINGSTON BROOKS, PHILANTHROPIST

"It is my deliberate intention," Lord Arranmore said, leaning over
towards her from his low chair, "to make myself a nuisance to you." Lady
Caroom smiled at him thoughtfully.

"Thank you for the warning," she said, "but I can take care of myself.
I do not feel even obliged to deny myself the pleasure of your society."

"No, you won't do that," he remarked. "You see, so many people bore
you, and I don't."

"It is true," she admitted. "You pay me nothing but unspoken
compliments, and you devote a considerable amount of ingenuity to
conceal the real meaning of everything you say. Now some people might
not like that. I adore it."

"Catherine, will you marry me?"

"Certainly not! I'm much too busy looking after Sybil, and in any case
you've had your answer, my friend."

"You will marry me," he said, deliberately, "in less than two
years--perhaps in less than one. Why can't you make your mind up to
it?"

"You know why, Arranmore," she said, quietly. "If you were the man I
remember many years ago, the man I have wasted many hours of my life
thinking about, I would not hesitate for a moment. I loved that man,
and I have always loved him. But, Arranmore, I cannot recognize him in
you. If these terrible things which you have suffered, these follies
which you have committed, have withered you up so that there remains no
trace of the man I once cared for, do you blame me for refusing you? I
will not marry a stranger, Arranmore, and I not only don't know you, but
I am a little afraid of you."

He sighed.

"Perhaps you are right," he said, softly. "I believe that the only
thing I have carried with me from the beginning, and shall have with me
to the end, is my love for you. Nothing else has survived."

Her eyes filled with tears. She leaned over to him.

"Dear friend," she said, "listen! At least I will promise you this. If
ever I should see the least little impulse or action which seems to me
to come from the Philip I once knew, and not Lord Arranmore, anything
which will convince me that some part, however slight, o