neighborliness," he answered gravely. "How long have we lived 'across
the street from each other,' as they say here, Mrs. Leroy?"

She did not raise her eyes from her white ruffles.

"It is just a year this month," she said.

"We are such good friends," he continued in his gentle, reserved voice,
"that I hesitate to break into such pleasant relations, even with
the chance of making us all happier, perhaps. But I cannot resist the
temptation. Could we not make one family, we three?"

A quick, warm color flooded her cheeks and forehead. She caught her
breath; her startled eyes met his with a lightning-swift flash of
something that moved him strangely.

"What do you mean, Colonel Driscoll?" she asked, low and quickly.

"I mean, could you give me your daughter--if she--at any time--could
think it possible?"

She drew a deep breath; the color seemed blown from her transparent skin
like a flame from a lamp. For a moment her head seemed to droop; then
she sat straight and moistened her lips, her eyes fixed level ahead.

"Lady?" she whispered, and he was sure that she thought the word was
spoken in her ordinary tone. "Lady?"

"I know--I realize perfectly that it is a presumption in me--at my
age--when I think of what she deserves. Oh, we won't speak of it again
if you feel that it would be wrong!"

"No, no, it is not that," she murmured. "I--I have always known that I
must lose her; but she--one is so selfish--she is all I have, you know!"

"But you would not lose her!" he cried eagerly. "You would only share
her with me, dear Mrs. Leroy! Do you think--could she--it is possible?"

"Lady is an unusual girl," she said evenly, but with something gone out
of her warm, gay voice. "She has never cared for young people. I know
that she admires you greatly. While I cannot deny that I should prefer
less difference than lies between your ages, it would be folly in me to
fail to recognize the desirability of the connection in every other
way. Whatever her decision--and the matter rests entirely with her--my
daughter and I are honored by your proposal, Colonel Driscoll."

She might have been reading a carefully prepared address: her eyes never
wavered from the wall in front--it was as if she saw her words there.

"Then--then will you ask her?"

She stared at him now.

"You mean that you wish me to ask her to marry you?"

"Yes," he said simply. "She will feel freer in that way. You will know
as I should not, directly, if