. "Only as a temporary expedient," he said. "I'll let you go
again--when you wish it."

His hand remained outstretched, and after a very considerable pause she
laid hers within it.

"But really," she said, with an effort, "I don't think we need do
anything so desperate as that."

"A desperate case requires a desperate remedy sometimes," said Max, with
a humorous twinkle in his eyes "It doesn't mean anything, but we must
floor this rascal somehow. Is it a bargain?"

She hesitated. "You won't tell anyone else?"

"Not a soul," said Max.

She still hesitated. "But--he won't believe you."

"He will if I refer him to you," said Max.

Olga pondered the matter. "Are you sure it's the only way?"

"If you don't want Nick to know," he said.

"And what if he--spreads it abroad?" she hazarded.

"We can always treat it as idle gossip, you know," said Max. "Imminent
but not actual--the sort of thing over which we blush demurely and say
nothing."

She smiled in spite of herself. "It's very good of you," she said with
feeling.

"Not a bit," said Max. "I shall enjoy it. I think it ought to put an
effectual stop to all unwelcome amenities on his part. We'll try it
anyhow."

He released her hand, and resumed his darning, still looking quizzical.

Olga lingered, dubiously reminding herself that only a few hours before
she had distrusted this man whom circumstance now made her champion.

"Scissors, please!" said Max.

She gave them to him absently. He held out the unsevered wool, his eyes
laughing at her over it.

"You can do the cutting," he said.

She complied, and in the same instant she met his look. "Max," she said
rather breathlessly, "I--don't quite like it."

"All right," he said imperturbably. "Don't do it!"

She paused, looking at him almost imploringly. "You're sure it won't
mean anything?"

"It can mean as much or as little as you like," said Max.

"I didn't mean--quite that," faltered Olga. "But--it won't be--it never
could be--like a real engagement; could it?"

"Like, yet unlike," said Max. "It will be a sort of elastic and
invisible bond, made to stretch to the utmost limit, never breaking of
itself, though capable of being severed by either party at a moment's
notice."

Olga drew a breath of relief. "If that is really all--"

"What more could the most exacting require?" said Max.

What indeed! Yet the phrase struck Olga somehow as being not wholly
satisfactory. Perhaps even then, vaguely s