been hers. Verinder had paid for the right to caress her. He had
offered his millions for the privilege. She too must pay the price for
what she received.

"We must go in," she told him presently. "They will wonder."

"They won't wonder long, by Jove," he replied, a surge of triumph in his
voice.

Joyce looked at him quickly. "You're not going to tell them to-night?"

He nodded. "To-night, my beauty."

"Oh, no. Please not to-night. Let's ... keep it to ourselves for a few
days, dear." The last word was a trifle belated, but that might be
because she was not used to it.

Verinder shot a look of quick suspicion at her. "I'm going to tell them
to-night--as soon as we get back into the room."

"But ... surely it's for me to say that, Dobyans. I want to keep our
little secret for awhile." She caught with her hands the lapels of his
dinner jacket and looked pleadingly at him.

"No--to-night." He had a good deal of the obstinacy characteristic of
many stupid men, but this decision was based on shrewd sense. He held
the upper hand. So long as they were in the neighborhood of Jack Kilmeny
he intended to keep it.

"Even though I want to wait?"

"Why do you want to wait?" he demanded sullenly. "Because of that fellow
Kilmeny?"

She knew that she had gone as far as she dared. "How absurd. Of course
not. Tell them if you like, but--it's the first favor I've asked of you
since----"

Her voice faltered and broke. It held a note of exquisite pathos.
Verinder felt like a brute, but he did not intend to give way.

"You haven't any real reason, Joyce."

"Isn't it a reason that ... I want to keep our engagement just to
ourselves for a few days? It's our secret--yours and mine--and I don't
want everybody staring at us just yet, Dobyans. Don't you understand?"

"Different here," he answered jauntily. "I want to shout it from the
house-top." He interrupted himself to caress her again and to kiss the
little pink ear that alone was within reach. "I'll make it up to you a
hundred times, but I'm jolly well set on telling them to-night, dear."

She gave up with a shrug, not because she wanted to yield but because
she must. Her face was turned away from him, so that he did not see the
steely look in her eyes and the hard set of the mouth. She was thinking
of Jack Kilmeny. What would he say or do when he was told? Surely he
would protect her. He would not give her away. If he were a gentleman,
he couldn't betray a woman. But how