ast night," said Gerrard laconically. Charteris came a step nearer.

"Will you kindly tell me," he said, addressing creation generally,
"exactly what that girl wants? Hal, I could have sworn it was you when
she refused me."

"And until she refused me, I could have sworn it was you. Pretty clear
she don't want either of us, ain't it? In fact, I may as well tell
you, as she doesn't seem to have done it, that she said she had no
intention of marrying at all."

"Fudge!" cried Charteris, quite in the vein of the immortal Mr
Burchell. "Then she's here on false pretences. What does a spin. come
out for but to get a husband? No, you mark my words, my boy; she's
waiting for a bachelor Governor-General!"

Gerrard opened his lips to protest, but not feeling called upon to
repeat the whole of his conversation with Miss Cinnamond, closed them
again. "Anyhow," he said at last, rather awkwardly, "as we're in the
same boat, don't you think we might come to an agreement of some sort,
and do people out of a little of the fun they're having over us? 'Our
Mr James' told the Colonel to-day that we wanted our heads knocking
together."

"James Antony is a coarse brute, and I should uncommonly like to see
him try it!" said Charteris, with concentrated fury. Then he came and
stood over Gerrard, and looked at him curiously. "Were you going to
suggest that we should come to an agreement to give up all thoughts of
her?" he asked with extreme calmness.

"No, not for a moment."

"I'm glad to hear that, because I shouldn't think of doing it. I mean
to go on asking her, over and over again, until she accepts me."

"And so do I," cried Gerrard, starting up, stung out of his usual
quietness of manner. They glared at each other angrily for a moment,
then Charteris laughed rather unsteadily.

"Basis for an agreement is rather wanting, ain't it? I regard you as a
person of ordinary sanity, so I don't imagine you were going to propose
either that I should nobly resign her in your favour, or you in mine.
Then what on earth is there left to do?"

"We have to think of her as well as ourselves," said Gerrard, trying to
steady his voice. "She may not marry at all, as she said"--Charteris
snorted--"or she may marry some one else, neither of us. And I am sure
we should both rather see her married to some one else, and happy, than
marry her ourselves and know that she wasn't happy."

The construction of the sentence was involved, but it