got the first call on you--not your
father." The skin over his nose was tight, owing to the sudden swelling
of two points, one on either side of the bone.

"George, I couldn't leave him--again. I think now I may have been wrong
to leave him before. However, that's over. I couldn't leave him again.
It would be very wrong. He'd be all alone."

"Well, then, let him be friends with me."

"I do wish he would."

"Yes. Well, wishing won't do much good. If there's any trouble it's
entirely your father's fault. And what I want to know is--will you give
me your absolute promise to marry me in two years' time?"

"I can't, George. It wouldn't be honest. I can't! I can't! How can you
ask me to throw over my duty to father?"

He rose and walked away again. She was profoundly moved, but no sympathy
for her mitigated his resentment. He considered that her attitude was
utterly monstrous--monstrous! He could not find a word adequate for it.
He was furious; his fury increased with each moment. He returned to the
prow, but did not sit down.

"Don't you think, then, you ought to choose between your father and me?"
he said in a low, hard voice, standing over her.

"What do you mean?" she faltered.

"What do I mean? It's plain enough what I mean, isn't it? Your father
may live twenty years yet. Nobody knows. The older he gets the more
obstinate he'll be. We may be kept hanging about for years and years and
years. Indefinitely. What's the sense of it? You say you've got your
duty, but what's the object of being engaged?"

"Do you want to break it off, George?"

"Now don't put it like that. You know I don't want to break it off. You
know I want to marry you. Only you won't, and I'm not going to be made a
fool of. I'm absolutely innocent."

"Of course you are!" she agreed eagerly.

"Well, I'm not going to be made a fool of by your father. If we're
engaged, you know what it means. Marriage. If it doesn't mean that, then
I say we've no right to be engaged."

Marguerite seemed to recoil at the last words, but she recovered
herself. And then, heedless of being in a public place, she drew off her
glove, and drew the engagement ring from her finger, and held it out to
George. She could not speak. The gesture was her language. George was
extremely staggered. He was stupefied for an instant. Then he took the
ring, and under an uncontrollable savage impulse he threw it into the
river. He did not move for a considerable time, staring at t