it, but the dog--that's
Nancy--she doesn't know it."

He seemed unimpressed by the humor of the situation. He walked away and
put his hand on the knob.

"One thing more," he said. "I would like to be sure that you understand
this. The weapons are all in my hands. The only strength of your position
lies in my good nature and willingness to keep up appearances. Neither
one is a rock of defense. I'm not, as you said yourself, good-tempered,
and I care very little for appearances. The risk you run, if you don't
play absolutely fair, is of being publicly jilted."

"And I should hate that," she answered candidly.

"I'm sure you would," he answered. "And I don't particularly enjoy
threatening you with such a possibility."

"Really," said she. "Now I rather like you when you talk like that."

"Fortunate that you do," he returned, "for you will probably hear a good
deal of it."

She nodded with perfect acquiescence. "And now," she said, "if you have
no more hateful things to say, let's go and tell our friends of the great
happiness that has come into our lives."

CHAPTER IV

As they went down the stairs--those same stairs on which only two
evenings before they had first met--toward the drawing-room where their
great announcement was to be made, Riatt stopped Christine in her
triumphal progress.

"You're not going to have the supreme cruelty," he said, "to let poor
Hickson think that our engagement is a genuine one?"

Christine paused. "I wonder," she answered thoughtfully, "which in the
end would deceive him most--to make him think it was real or fake?"

"You blood-curdling woman," said Riatt. "I am not engaged to you."

"Oh, yes, you are--until March first."

"I am pretending to be until March first."

She leant against the banisters, and regarded him critically. "Isn't it
strange," she remarked, "that you dislike so much the idea of my trying
to make you care for me? Some men would be crazy about the process."

"Oh, if I enjoyed the process, I should regard myself as lost."

She shook her head. "I'm not sure that this terror isn't a more
significant confession of weakness. Who is it is most afraid of high
places? Those who feel a desire to jump off."

"I'm not afraid," he returned crossly. "I just don't like it. I
don't want to be made love to. That's one of the mistakes women are
always making. They think all men want to be made love to by any
woman. We don't."

Christine sighed gently. "You'r