rm, isn't it?" he said.

"No, it isn't," she assured him, promptly and Very earnestly. "It
means that we are friends, but we are not in love and we are not
going to pretend we are. At least," she flushed suddenly under his
look, "that is what it means to me."

"I see," said Burke. "And what would happen if we fell in love
with each other?"

Her eyes sank in spite of her. "I don't think we need consider
that," she said.

"Why not?" said Burke.

"I could never be in love with anyone again," she said, her voice
very low.

"Quite sure?" said Burke.

Something in his tone made her look up sharply. His eyes were
intently and critically upon her, but the glow had gone out of
them. They told her nothing.

"Do you think we need discuss this subject?" she asked him uneasily.

"Not if you prefer to shirk it," he said. She flushed a little.
"But I don't shirk. I'm not that sort."

"No," he said. "I don't think you are. You may be frightened, but
you won't run away."

"But I'm not frightened," she asserted boldly, looking him squarely
in the face. "We are friends, you and I. And--we are going to
trust each other. Being married isn't going to make any difference
to us. It was just a matter of convenience and--we are going to
forget it."

She paused. Burke's face had not altered. He was looking back at
her with perfectly steady eyes.

"Very simple in theory," he said. "Won't you finish?"

"That's all," she said lightly. "Except--if you really want to
kiss me now and then--you can do so. Only don't be silly about it!"

Burke's quick movement of surprise told her that this was
unexpected. The two horses had recovered their wind and begun to
nibble at one another. He checked them with a growling rebuke.
Then very quietly he placed Sylvia's bridle in her hand, and put
her from him.

"Thank you," he said again. "But you mustn't be too generous at
the outset. I might begin to expect too much. And that would
be--silly of me, wouldn't it?"

There was no bitterness in voice or action, but there was
unmistakable irony. A curious sense of coldness came upon her, as
if out of the heart a distant storm-cloud an icy breath had reached
her.

She looked at him rather piteously. "You are not angry?" she said.

He leaned back in the saddle to knock a blood-sucking fly off his
horse's flank. Then he straightened himself and laughed.

"No, not in the least," he said.

She knew that he spoke the tr