t. Tell me what you want to do."

Her answer came with a vehemence that perhaps he had hardly expected.
"Oh, I want to get away--right away. I want to go home. I--I hate this
place."

"And every one in it?" suggested Nick.

"Almost." Muriel spoke recklessly, even defiantly. She was fighting
for her freedom, and the battle was infinitely harder than she had
anticipated.

He nodded. "The sole exception being Mrs. Musgrave. Do you know Mrs.
Musgrave is going home? You would like to go with her."

Muriel looked at him with sudden hope. "Alone with her?" she said.

"Oh, I'm not going," declared Nick. "I'm going to Khatmandu for my
honeymoon."

The hope died out of Muriel's eyes. "Don't--jeer at me, Nick," she
said, in a choked voice. "I can't bear it."

"Jeer!" said Nick. "I!" He reached down suddenly and took her hand.
The light sparkled on the ring he had given her, and he moved it
slowly to and fro watching it.

"I am going to ask you to take it back," she said.

He did not raise his eyes. "And I am going to refuse," he answered
promptly. "I don't say you must wear it, but you are to keep it--not
as a bond, merely in remembrance of a promise which you will make to
me."

"A promise--" she faltered.

Still he did not look up. He was watching the stones with eyes
half-shut.

"Yes," he said, after a moment. "I will let you go on the sole
condition that you give me this promise."

She began to tremble a little. "What is it?" she whispered.

He glanced at her momentarily, but his expression was enigmatical. She
felt as if his look lighted and dwelt upon something beyond her.

"Simply this," he said. "You'll laugh, I daresay; but if you are able
to laugh it won't hurt you to promise. I want your word of honour that
if you ever change your mind about marrying me, you will come to me
like a brave woman and tell me so."

Thus, quite calmly, he made known to her his condition, and in the
amazed silence with which she received it he continued to flash hither
and thither the wonderful rays that shone from the gems upon her hand.
He did not appear to be greatly concerned as to what her answer would
be. Simply with an inscrutable countenance he waited for it.

"Is it a bargain?" he asked at last.

She started with an involuntary gesture of shrinking. "Oh, no, Nick!
How could I promise you that? You know I shall never change my mind."

He raised his eyebrows ever so slightly. "That isn't the point under
discuss