n my way," he said briskly. "I'm a vastly busy old man."

"But, Doctor, you haven't helped me a bit to decide," she said,
aggrievedly.

"I can't, my dear. No one can. And, what's more, you don't want me to."

"Why, Doctor, I"--she began. Then she dropped her eyes and a little
smile trembled at her lips. "How do you know?" she asked.

"I know a few things yet, Miss Eve," he chuckled, picking up his old
black leather bag.

"Just a moment, please," begged Eve. "Did he ever tell you that he
wanted me to take some of Cousin Edward's money?"

"M'm, yes, he did tell me that," responded the Doctor cautiously. "But
that's nothing against him."

"N-no, I know it isn't. And he said--says he will have his way."

The Doctor settled his hat and gripped his stick.

"Then I guess he will. He looks that kind of a man."

"He never will," said Eve, firmly, "never!"

"Unless," chuckled the Doctor, "you marry him." He waved his cane and
strode away toward the gate. "How about that?" he called back over the
hedge.

Eve made no answer. She was thinking very busily. "Unless I marry him!"
she repeated, somewhat blankly, staring at the turquoise ring which she
was slipping around and around on her finger. The moments passed. A
frown crept into her forehead and grew there, dark and threatening,
under the warm shadow of her hair. "And so that's it," she thought
bitterly and angrily. "That's what it means. That's why he's acted so
strangely since--since he asked me to marry him. It's just a trick to
get his own way. He'd marry me as a sop to his conscience. It's just the
money, after all. Oh, I wish--I wish Cousin Edward had never had any
money!"

She sat there a long time, while the shadows shortened and the birds
grew silent, one by one, and the noonday hush fell over the old garden;
sat there until Miss Mullett came to the kitchen door and summoned her
to luncheon.

XV.

Wade rolled a vest into a tight wad and tucked it into a corner of the
till. Then he glanced around the sitting-room, saw nothing else to pack,
and softly dropped the lid. That done he sat down on it and relighted
his pipe.

It was two days since Eve and the Doctor had talked under the cedars,
one day since Wade had received her note. He had not seen her since. She
hadn't asked him not to, but Wade had stereotyped ideas as to the proper
conduct of a rejected suitor, and he intended to live up to them. Of
course he would call in the morning and say go