r voice failed suddenly, but she
struggled to recover it, and succeeded--"I am not clever--like other
women. I want plain speaking, not hints, I want to be told--in so many
words--that you have set me free."

"Why should I tell you what isn't true?" said Tots. He stretched out his
hand to her without rising. "I haven't set you free," he said, "and I'm
not goin' to. Is that plain enough?"

He caught her hand with the words and drew her gently towards him. "I'll
tell you what I am goin' to do," he said. "Come quite close. I want to
whisper. You needn't be anxious. This chair is strong enough for two."

Gentle as he was in speech and action, there was something irresistible
about him at that moment--something to which Ruth yielded because there
was no alternative. She went to him trembling, and he drew her down
beside him, holding her every instant closer to him.

"Still frightened?" he asked her very tenderly. "Still wantin' to run
away?"

She hid her face against him dumbly. She could not answer him in words.

He went on speaking, softly, soothingly, as if she had been a child.

"People make a ridiculous fuss about gettin' married," he said. "It's
the fashion nowadays to make a sort of Punch and Judy show of it for all
the people one ever met, and a few hundreds besides, to come and gape
at. But you and I are not goin' to do that. We're goin' to show some
sense, and get married on the quiet, in a little village church I know
of; and then we're goin' into retirement for a time, and when we come
out we shall be old married people, and no one will want to pelt us with
shoes and things. Now I've got a weddin'-ring in my pocket, and I hope
it'll fit better than the other. And I've got a special license too.
It's a nice, fine mornin', isn't it? And that's all we want. Let's have
some breakfast, and then go and get married!"

Ruth raised her head with a gasp. Unexpected as was the whole turn of
events, she was utterly unprepared for this astounding suggestion.

"But--but--" she faltered.

And then for the first time she saw Tots's eyes, opened wide and looking
at her with an expression there was no mistaking. He took her face
between his hands.

"Yes, I know all that," he said, speaking below his breath. "But it
doesn't count, dear--believe me, it doesn't. The only thing that is
really indispensable, we have. So why not--make that do?"

"Oh, I don't know," she gasped. "I don't know."

She was quivering as a harp