aside the suggestion, but a moment
after contradicted his words with a suggestive: "_Still_, it's getting
on.--Of course you realise, Katrine, that if ever there is any talk of
marriage, you mustn't let me--I must not interfere."

The girl's lips twitched. Ever any talk! Blessed innocent! did he
suppose that no one had ever--? What would he say if he realised that
she had already dismissed two solid, eligible suitors, who had laid
before her feet not only themselves, but their not inconsiderable
worldly goods, pointing out to each in gentle, sister-like fashion that
her life work was already fixed. Apart from the pain which she had been
obliged to inflict, the incidents had afforded Katrine real
satisfaction. It was pleasant to know that _some one_ had cared! When
one grew elderly and fat, it would be satisfactory to remember that one
had remained an old maid not of necessity, but from choice. It was true
that no self-denial had been involved in rejections, but this was a
point over which memory skimmed lightly. However sorely she had been
tempted, Katrine was satisfied that her answer would have been the same.

"Thank you, dear," she replied demurely. "I'll remember. But there
aren't so _very_ many chances here, are there? I counted up the other
day, and found that there are just twenty-six eligible and attractive
girls within a radius of three miles, and exactly three and a half young
men. The half is represented by Edgar Bevan, who comes home for the
week end. I don't wish to exaggerate, so I'll confess that there are
also three widowers!"

"Including myself?"

Katrine's look was full of a shocked surprise.

"Martin! How can you! Three and a half bachelors, _and_ the widowers.
But _one_ widower has a fine car. He might almost be counted as two!
Even so, it leaves a considerable margin. My own chance, dear brother,
is but one to five!"

They laughed together, but Martin appeared to ponder the subject, and to
find it disconcerting.

"That's so; no doubt it's so. The young men gravitate to the towns.
It's hard on the girls."

"Oh, we are happy enough!" The very acknowledgment of the hardship
seemed for the moment to remove its sting. "So far as I am concerned,
if they all arrived in a body and sat in rows on the hearthrug waiting
to propose (which they show no immediate signs of doing, by the bye!) I
would not look at one. You and Dorothea are all the sweethearts I
want."

"Well!" ejac