populated stairways. "I want you to marry me
right away," he went on, but not with that amazing confidence of yester-
years.

Anne blinked. Then she drew back and stared at him for a moment. A merry
smile followed her brief inspection.

"Simmy, you've been drinking."

He scowled, and at that she laughed aloud. "'Pon my soul, not more than
three, Anne. I rarely drink in the middle of the day. Almost never, I
swear to you. Confound it, why should you say I've been drinking? Can't I
be serious without being accused of drunkenness? What the devil do you
mean, Anne, by intimating that I--"

"Don't explode, Simmy," she cried. "I wasn't intimating a thing. I was
positively asserting it. But go on, please. You interest me. Don't try to
look injured, Simmy. You can't manage it at all."

"I didn't come here to be insulted," he growled.

"Did you come here to insult me?" she inquired, the smile suddenly leaving
her eyes.

"Good Lord, no!" he gasped. "Only I don't like what you said a minute ago.
I never was more serious or more sober in my life. You've been proposed to
a hundred times, I suppose, and I'll bet I'm the only one you've ever
accused of drinking at the time. It's just my luck. I--"

"What in the world are you trying to get at, Simmy Dodge?" she cried. "Are
you really asking me to marry you?"

"Certainly," he said, far from mollified.

She leaned back in the chair and regarded him in silence for a moment. "Is
it possible that you have not heard that I am to be married this month?"
she asked, and there was something like pity in her manner.

"Heard it? Of course, I've heard it. Everybody's heard it. That's just
what I've come to see you about. To talk the whole thing over. To see if
we can't do something. Now, there is a way out of it, dear girl. It may
not be the best way in the world but it's infinitely--"

"Are you crazy?" she cried, staring at him in alarm.

"See here, Anne," he said gently, "I am your friend. It will not make any
difference to you if I tell you that I love you, that I've loved you for
years. It's true nevertheless. I'm glad that I've at last had the courage
to tell you. Still I suppose it's immaterial. I've come up here this
afternoon to ask you to be my wife. I don't ask you to _say_ that you love
me. I don't want to put you in such a position as that. I know you don't
love me, but--"

"Simmy! Oh, Simmy!" she cried out, a hysterical laugh in her throat that
died suddenly in a stran