"Oh, do look at this!" she said to her companion. "Did you ever see such
a love of a ring?--what a perfect engagement-ring it would make!"

Then what mad, half-sullen, half-petulant, and wholly reckless impulse
sprang into his brain!

"Well, will you wear that as an engagement-ring, if I give it to you?"
he asked.

She looked up, startled, amused, but not displeased.

"Why, really--really--that _is_ a question to ask!" she exclaimed.

"Come along in and see if it fits your finger--come along!" and
therewith Miss Burgoyne, a little bewildered and still inclined to
laugh, found herself at the jeweller's counter. Was it a joke? Oh,
certainly not. Lionel was quite serious and matter of fact. The tray was
produced. The ring was taken out. For a moment she hesitated as to
which finger to try it on, but overcame that shyness and placed it on
the third finger of her left hand and said it fitted admirably.

"Just keep it where it is, then," he said; and then he added a word or
two to the jeweller, whom he knew; and he and his companion left the
shop.

"Oh, Lionel, what an idea!" said Miss Burgoyne, with her eyes bent
modestly on the pavement. "If I had fancied you knew that man, do you
think I would ever have entered the place? What must he think? What
would any one think?--an engagement in the middle of the streets of
London!"

"Plenty of witnesses to the ceremony, that's all," said he, lightly.

Nay, was there not a curious sense of possession, now that he walked
alongside this little, bright person in the magnificent furs? He had
acquired something by this simple transaction; he would be less lonely
now; he would mate with his kind. But he did not choose to look far into
the future. Here he was walking along Piccadilly, with a cheerful and
smiling and prettily costumed young lady by his side who had just been
so kind as to accept an engagement-ring from him, and what more could he
want?

"Lionel," she said, still with modestly downcast eyes, "this mustn't be
known to any human being--no, not to a single human being--not yet, I
mean. I will get a strip of white india-rubber to cover the ring, so
that no one shall be able to see it on the stage."

Perhaps he recalled the fact that recently she had been wearing another
ring similarly concealed from the public gaze; or perhaps he had
forgotten that little circumstance. What did it matter? Did anything
matter? He only knew he had pledged himself to marry Kate
Burg