have you never contemplated yourself in a
looking-glass?'

'You're not a bit repentant of the havoc you have wrought,' he cried
dramatically.

She did not answer, but looked at him with a smile so entirely
delightful that he cried out irritably:

'I wish you wouldn't look like that.'

'How am I looking?' she smiled.

'To my innocent and inexperienced gaze very much as if you wanted to be
kissed.'

'You brute!' she cried. 'I'll never speak to you again.'

'Why do you make such rash statements? You know you couldn't hold you
tongue for two minutes together.'

'What a libel! I never can get a word in edgeways when I'm with you,'
she returned. 'You're such a chatterbox.'

'I don't know why you put on that aggrieved air. You seem to forget that
it's I who ought to be furious.'

'On the contrary, you behaved very unkindly to me a month ago, and I'm
only here to-day because I have a Christian disposition.'

'You forget that for the last four weeks I've been laboriously piecing
together the fragments of a broken heart,' he answered.

'It was entirely your fault,' she laughed. 'If you hadn't been so
certain I was going to accept you, I should never have refused. I
couldn't resist the temptation of saying no, just to see how you took
it.'

'I flatter myself I took it very well.'

'You didn't,' she answered. 'You showed an entire lack of humour. You
might have known that a nice woman doesn't accept a man the first time
he asks her. It was very silly of you to go to Homburg as if you didn't
care. How was I to know that you meant to wait a month before asking me
again?'

He looked at her for a moment calmly.

'I haven't the least intention of asking you again.'

But it required much more than this to put Julia Crowley out of
countenance.

'Then why on earth did you invite me to tea?'

'May I respectfully remind you that you invited yourself?' he protested.

'That's just like a man. He will go into irrelevant details,' she
answered.

'Now, don't be cross,' he smiled.

'I shall be cross if I want to,' she exclaimed, with a little stamp of
her foot. 'You're not being at all nice to me.'

He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, and his eyes twinkled.

'Do you know what I'd do if I were you?'

'No, what?'

'Well, _I_ can't suffer the humiliation of another refusal. Why don't
you propose to me?'

'What cheek!' she cried.

Their eyes met, and she smiled.

'What will you say if I do?'

'That e