to ask, in a
guardianly way, if she thought she were enough in love with Burden to be
happy with him.

"I haven't to think about being with him at all yet," she temporized.

"You seem to have an extraordinary idea of an engagement," I said,
perhaps rather sneeringly, for I felt bitter, and had never approved of
her less.

"Perhaps I have," she returned, in such an odd, muffled sort of tone
that I feared she was going to cry, and glanced at her sharply. But she
was looking down and there were no tears visible, so that fear was
relieved.

"You do, at all events, wish to be engaged to Burden?" I persisted. "Am
I to understand that?"

"I have asked for your consent," she said, with a queer stiffness. And
it was on my tongue to say as stiffly, "Very well: you have it. What
pleases you should please me." But the words stuck in my throat, as if
they'd been lumps of ice; and instead I answered, almost in spite of
myself, that I couldn't give my consent unconditionally. I must have
another talk with Burden, and whatever my decision might be, I would
prefer that she didn't consider herself engaged until after the tour was
ended.

"We'll bring it to a close as soon as possible now," I added, trying not
to sound as bitter as I felt, "so as not to keep you waiting."

She made no response to this, except to give me a singular look which
even now I find it impossible to understand. It was as if she had
something to reproach me for, and yet as if she were more pleased than
sad.

Girls are very complicated human beings, if indeed they can be
classified thus--though perhaps some men's lives would be duller if they
were simpler. As for my life, the less girls have to do with it when my
ward is off my hands, the better.

Since the above conversation, I have been drawn into a talk with Burden.
He appeared anxious to find out exactly what had passed between Ellaline
and me, almost as if he suspected her of not "playing straight," but I
replied, briefly, that she had asked my permission to be engaged to him,
having evidently changed her mind since our last discussion on the
subject. This appeared to content him more or less, although I repeated
what I'd said to the girl: that I was not prepared to consent officially
until I had communicated with his mother, and satisfied myself that my
ward would be welcomed in the family. This he evidently thought
old-fashioned and over-scrupulous, but when I admitted being both, he
ceased to pr