oney," Davenant warned him.

"I know that; but if you'll give us a little leeway--as I know you
will--"

"He means," Olivia spoke up, "that he'll sell his property--and whatever
else he has--and pay you."

"I don't want that," Davenant said, hastily.

"But I do. It's a point of honor with me not to let another man
shoulder--"

"And it's a point of honor with me, Rupert--"

"To stand by me," he broke in, quickly.

"I can't see it that way. What you propose is entirely against my
judgment. It's fantastic; it's unreal. I want you to understand that if
you attempted to carry it out I shouldn't marry you. Whatever the
consequences either to you or to me--_I shouldn't marry you_."

"And if I didn't attempt it? Would you marry me then?"

She looked up, then down, then at Davenant, then away from him. Finally
she fixed her gaze on Ashley.

"Yes," she said at last. "If you'll promise to let this wild project
drop, I'll marry you whenever you like. I'll waive all the other
difficulties--"

Davenant came forward, his hand outstretched. "I think I must say
good-by now, Miss Guion--"

"No; wait," Ashley commanded. "This matter concerns you, by Jove!"

Olivia sprang to her feet. "No; it doesn't, Rupert," she said, hastily.

"No; it doesn't," Davenant repeated after her. "It's not my affair. I
decline to be brought into it. I think I must say good-by now, Miss
Guion--"

"Listen, will you!" Ashley said, impatiently. "I'm not going to say
anything either of you need be afraid of. I'm only asking you to do me
the justice of trying to see things from my point of view. You may think
it forced or artificial or anything you please; but unfortunately, as an
officer and a gentleman, I've got to take it. The position you'd put me
in would be this--of playing a game--and a jolly important game at
that--in which the loser loses to me on purpose."

Ashley found much satisfaction in this way of putting it. Without
exposing him to the necessity of giving details, it made clear his
perception of what was going on. Moreover, it secured him _le beau
role_, which for a few minutes he feared he might have compromised. In
the look he caught, as it flashed between Olivia and Davenant, he saw
the signs of that appreciation he found it so hard to do without--the
appreciation of Rupert Ashley as the chivalrous Christian gentleman, at
once punctilious and daring, who would count all things as loss in order
to achieve the highest type of ma