heard! Twenty-three men
have asked me to marry them, and there wasn't an honest heart among the
crowd. I'm not a new-fashioned girl: I'm made so's I'd love my own
home; but sure as fate I'll die an old maid, for _I_ run away from
fortune-hunters, and the honest men run away from me. If a man happened
to be poor and proud, it would be a pretty stiff undertaking to propose
to the biggest pickle factory in the world, and I guess I don't make it
any easier. You see it's like this: the more I'm anxious that--that,
er--er," she stammered uncertainly for a moment, then with forcible
emphasis brought out a plural pronoun, "_they_ should care for me really
and truly for _myself_, the more I think that they only think--"

"Exactly!" interrupted Pixie, nodding. "I quite understand." And
indeed she looked so exceedingly alert and understanding that Honor
flushed all over her small, pale face, and made haste to change the
conversation.

"How did you get on with your partner at dinner? Pretty well, eh? He
can be real charming when he likes, and there's no doubt but he's good
to look at. I've met him quite a good deal since I've been over here,
for he's been staying at several houses at the same time. From a
European point of view, we seem quite old friends, and I've a kind of
fellow-feeling for him, poor boy, for he's a sufferer from my complaint
of being too well off for his own good."

Pixie nodded several times without speaking, her lips pursed in knowing,
elderly fashion.

"That accounts for it," she said, and when Honor queried eagerly as to
her meaning, her reply had a blighting insinuation.

"I'm accustomed to soldiers--men who can fight."

"That's not fair!" cried Honor sharply. She straightened herself and
tilted her head at an aggressive angle. "That's not fair. I guess
Stanor Vaughan and I have to go through our own military training, and
it's a heap more complicated than marching round a barrack yard! We're
bound to make our own weapons, and our enemies are the worst that's
made--the sort that comes skulking along in the guise of friends. There
aren't any bands playing, either, to cheer us along, and when we win
there are no medals and honours, only maybe an aching heart!"

She drew herself up with a startled little laugh.

"Mussy! Listen to me sermonising.--I guess I'd better get back to facts
as fast as I know how. ... When I said Stanor was _too_ well off, I
didn't mean money exactly, but thin