E!"

"Perhaps it's because I disturbed yer night's rest, Alaric?"

"You've disturbed ALL my rest. If you GO I'll never have ANY rest."
Once again he spurred on his flagging spirits and threw all his ardour
into the appeal. "I've really begun to care for you very much. Oh,
very, very much. It all came to me in a flash--down in the room."
And--for the moment--he really meant it. He began to see qualities in
his little cousin which he had never noticed before. And the fact that
she was not apparently a willing victim, added zest to the attack.

Peg looked at him with unfeigned interest:

"Sure, that does ye a great dale of credit. I've been thinkin' all the
time I've known ye that ye only cared for YERSELF--like all Englishmen."

"Oh, no," protested Alaric. "Oh, DEAR, no. We care a great deal at
times--oh, a GREAT deal--and never say a word about it--not a single
word. You know we hate to wear our hearts on our sleeves."

"I don't blame ye. Ye'd wear them out too soon, maybe."

Alaric felt that the moment had now really come.

"Cousin," he said, and his voice dropped to the caressing note of a
wooer: "Cousin! Do you know I am going to do something now I've never
done before?"

He paused to let the full force of what was to come have its real value.

"What is it, Alaric?" Peg asked, all unconscious of the drama that was
taking place in her cousin's heart! "Sure, what is it? Ye're not goin'
to do somethin' USEFUL, are ye?"

He braced himself and went on: "I am going to ask a very charming young
lady to marry me. Eh?"

"ARE ye?"

"I am."

"What do ye think o' that, now!"

"And--WHO--DO--YOU--THINK--IT--IS?"

He waited, wondering if she would guess correctly. It would be so
helpful if only she could.

But she was so unexpected.

"I couldn't guess it in a hundred years, Alaric. Ralely, I couldn't."

"Oh, TRY! Do. TRY!" he urged. "I couldn't think who'd marry YOU--indade
I couldn't. Mebbe the poor girl's BLIND. Is THAT it?"

"Can't you guess? No? Really?"

"NO, I'm tellin' ye. Who is it?"

"YOU!"

The moment had come. The die was cast. His life was in the hands of
Fate--and of Peg. He waited breathlessly for the effect.

Peg looked at him in blank astonishment.

All expression had left her face.

Then she leaned back against the balustrade and laughed long and
unrestrainedly. She laughed until the tears came coursing down her
cheeks.

Alaric was at first nonplussed. Then he grasped the situati