s I'll run away with you next Tuesday!"

There was a babble of conversation about them, and much laughter, for
Gilbert, reacting from his fright, was full of bright talk, and Sir
Geoffrey, reminiscent, capped it with entertaining tales of dramatists
and stage people. It was easy for Cecily and Henry to carry on their
conversation in quiet tones without fear of being overheard.

"You treat me like a boy," he said reproachfully.

"You are a boy, Paddy dear, and a very nice boy!"

"I suppose," he retorted, "it's impossible for you to understand that I
love you...."

"Indeed, it isn't," she interrupted. "I understand that quite easily.
What I can't understand is why you wish to spoil everything by silly
proposals to ... to elope!..."

"But I love you," he insisted. "Isn't that enough to make you
understand?"

She shook her head, and turned again to Ninian.

"You see," Ninian said, "you bore through this big bed of chalk from
both sides...."

"But how do you know the two ends will meet?" she asked.

"Oh, engineers manage that sort of thing easily," Ninian answered.
"Think of the Simplon Tunnel!..."

"Yes!" she said, to indicate that she was thinking of it.

"Well, that met, didn't it?"

"Did it?" she replied. "Oh, but of course it must have met. I've been
through it!..."

"There was hardly an inch of divergence between the two ends," he went
on....

"Hell's flames!" Henry said to himself.

5

"I must see you," he said to her when the party had broken up and she
was going home. "I must see you alone!"

"I do hope you're not going to be a nuisance, Paddy!" she replied.

He put her cloak about her shoulders. "Will you meet me at the
suspension bridge over the lake in St. James's Park to-morrow at
eleven?..."

"That's awfully early, Paddy, and St. James's Park is such a long way
from everywhere. Couldn't you come to lunch? Jimphy'll be glad to see
you. He seems to like you for some reason!"

"I want to talk to you alone, and we're not likely to be disturbed in
St. James's Park. You must come, Cecily!"

"Oh, all right," she answered. "But I shan't be there before twelve. You
can take me to lunch somewhere...."

"Very well," he said. "I'll be at the bridge at twelve, and I'll wait
for you ... only, come as soon as you can, Cecily!"

"I can't think why you want to behave like this, Paddy. It's so
melodramatic. Gilbert was just the same!..."

He felt that he could hit her when she said that, and h