little further over the end of the bed and patted her
hair.

"Do have some barley-water," he said. "Just a sip!"

"You _are_ in love with her!" sobbed Jane.

"I'm _not_! I love _you_!"

"You don't!"

"Pardon _me_!" said Eustace firmly. "I've loved you ever since you gave
me that extraordinary drink with Worcester sauce in it on the boat."

"They why didn't you say so before?"

"I hadn't the nerve. You always seemed so--I don't know how to put it--I
always seemed such a worm. I was just trying to get the courage to
propose when I caught the mumps, and that seemed to me to finish it. No
girl could love a man with three times the proper amount of face."

"As if that could make any difference! What does your outside matter? I
have seen your inside!"

"I beg your pardon?"

"I mean...."

Eustace fondled her back hair.

"Jane! Queen of my soul! Do you really love me?"

"I've loved you ever since we met on the Subway." She raised a
tear-stained face. "If only I could be sure that you really loved me!"

"I can prove it!" said Eustace proudly. "You know how scared I am of my
mother. Well, for your sake I overcame my fear, and did something
which, if she ever found out about it, would make her sorer than a
sunburned neck! This house. She absolutely refused to let it to old
Bennett and old Mortimer. They kept after her about it, but she wouldn't
hear of it. Well, you told me on the boat that Wilhelmina Bennett had
invited you to spend the summer with her, and I knew that, if they
didn't come to Windles, they would take some other place, and that meant
I wouldn't see you. So I hunted up old Mortimer, and let it to him on
the quiet, without telling my mother anything about it!"

"Why, you darling angel child," cried Jane Hubbard joyfully. "Did you
really do that for my sake? Now I know you love me!"

"Of course, if mother ever got to hear of it...!"

Jane Hubbard pushed him gently into the nest of bedclothes, and tucked
him in with strong, calm hands. She was a very different person from the
girl who so short a while before had sobbed on the carpet. Love is a
wonderful thing.

"You mustn't excite yourself," she said. "You'll be getting a
temperature. Lie down and try to get to sleep." She kissed his bulbous
face. "You have made me so happy, Eustace darling."

"That's good," said Eustace cordially. "But it's going to be an awful
jar for mother!"

"Don't you worry about that. I'll break the news to your mothe