e most part I must
say I find our own little world the more attractive."

Then he surprised her. "Katie, would you think a man a brute to propose
to a girl on the day she was giving an important dinner?"

But right there she pulled herself in. "No more tumbles!" thought Katie.

"It would seem rather inconsiderate, wouldn't it? Such a man wouldn't
seem to have a true sense of values."

"Well, dinner or no dinner, the man I have in mind has a true sense of
values. He has a true sense of values because he knows Katherine
Wayneworth Jones for the most desirable thing in all the world."

It did surprise her, and the surprise grew. None of them had thought of
Major Darrett as what they called a marrying man.

And on the heels of the surprise came a certain sense of triumph. Katie
knew that any of the girls in what he called their little world would be
looking upon it as a moment of triumph, and there was triumph in gaining
what others would regard as triumph.

"How old are you, Katie?" he asked.

She told him.

"Twenty-five. And I'm forty-one. Is that prohibitive?"

She looked at him, thinking how lightly the years had touched him--how
lightly, in all probability, they would touch him. He had distinctly the
military bearing. He would have that same bearing at sixty. And that
same charm. He was one to whom experience gave the gift of charm more
insidiously than youth could give it.

Life would be more possible with him than with any man she knew within
the enclosure. If one were to go dancing and smiling and flirting through
the world Major Darrett would be the best possible man to go with.

As she looked at him, smiling at her half tenderly and half humorously,
life with Major Darrett presented itself as such an attractive thing that
there was almost pain in the thought of not being able to take it.

For deep within her she never questioned not being able to take it. But
for the moment--

"You see, Katie," he was saying, "I would be the best possible one for
you to be married to, because you could go right on having
flirtations. Of course I needn't tell you, Katie dear, that you're a
flirt. The trouble with your marrying most fellows would be that they
wouldn't like it."

"And of course," she replied, "I would be a good one for you to marry
because having my own flirtations I wouldn't be in a position to be
critical about yours."

He laughed quite frankly.

Katie leaned back and sat there smiling at him,