"Yes."

"I _prayed_ that you'd come with mother and me. I thought Ninian would
go with mother, and you'd go with me ... but you didn't!"

"I remember," he answered. "I wanted to go with you...."

"Why didn't you?"

"Some one came up ... I've forgotten ... something happened, and so I
didn't. I wanted to, Mary!"

"I thought then that you and I would never! ... Why did you ask me to
marry you, Quinny?"

"Because I love you, Mary...."

"But ... did you mean to marry me or did you just ... sort of ... not
thinking, I mean!... Oh, it's awf'lly hard to say what's in my mind, but
I want to know whether you love me really and truly, Quinny, or only
just asked me to marry you impulsively ... when you weren't thinking?"

"I came here loving you, Mary. I didn't mean to tell you about it so
soon as I did ... that was impulse ... I couldn't help it ... the moment
I saw you as the train came into the station, I felt that I must ask you
at once. It would have been rather awkward if you'd said, 'No.' I
suppose I should have had to go straight back to London again!... But I
came here loving you. I've loved you all the time ... even when I wasn't
thinking of you, but of some one else. I've come back to you always in
my thoughts!..."

"Do you remember," she said, "the first time you asked me to marry you,
Quinny?"

"Yes."

"I've meant it ever since then. You hurt me when you went to Ireland and
didn't answer my letter...."

"I know!" he exclaimed.

"How do you know?"

"I just know. And when I talked to you about it, that time in Bloomsbury
when you and Mrs. Graham and Rachel came to dine with us...."

"I made fun of it, didn't I? But I had to, Quinny. You'd been unkind,
and I had to make some sort of a show, hadn't I? I had to keep my pride
if I couldn't keep anything else."

"We've been stupid, both of us."

"You have," she retorted.

"I have," he said. "I've been frightfully stupid. That's what puzzles
me. I'm clear-sighted enough about the people I make up in my books. The
critics insist on my understanding of human motives, and I know that I
have that understanding. I can get right inside my characters, and I
know them through and through ... but I'm as stupid as a sheep about
myself and about you and ... living people. I suppose I exhaust all my
understanding on my books!"

"Well, it doesn't matter, Quinny, dear," she said. "I'll understand for
the two of us!..."

10

In the morning, Ninian went awa