to--kiss me."

The Major looked highly uncomfortable.

"He kissed me here, sir!" and rosy finger-tip indicated dimpled chin.
"To be sure he aimed for my lips, but, by subtlety, I substituted my
chin which he kissed--O, passionately!"

The Major dropped the tobacco-box.

"But I understand you--but you were swooning!" he stammered.

"I frequently do, Major John, I also faint, sir, as occasion doth
demand."

"God bless my soul!" he exclaimed.

"And wherefore this amaze, sir?"

"'Fore Heaven, madam, I had not dreamed of such--such duplicity."

"O Innocence!" she cried.

"Do all fine ladies feign swoons, madam?"

"Major Innocence, they do! They swoon by rote and they faint by rule."

"Thank Heaven there be none to come swooning my way!" said he fervently.

"Dare you contemn the sex, sir?

"Nay, I'm not so bold, madam, or sufficiently experienced."

"To be sure your knowledge of the sex is limited, I understand."

"Very!"

"You have known but three ladies, I think?"

The Major bowed.

"Then I make the fourth, Major John."

"But indeed, I should never learn to know you in the least."

"Why, 'tis very well!" she nodded. "That which mystifies, attracts."

"Do you wish to attract?" he enquired, stooping for the tobacco-box.

"Sir, I am a woman!"

"True," he smiled, "for whose presence several poor gentlemen do sigh.
Let us join 'em."

"Ah! You wish to be rid of me!" She laid down the pen and, leaning
chin on hand, regarded him with eyes of meekness. "Do you wish to be
rid of me?" she enquired humbly. "Do I weary you with my idle chatter,
most grave philosopher?" She had a trick of pouting red lips sometimes
when thinking and she did so now as she waited her answer.

"No!" said he.

"I could wish you a little more emphatic, sir and much more--more
fiercely masculine--ferocity tempered with respect. Could you ever
forget to be so preposterously sedate?"

"I climbed a wall!" he reminded her.

"Pooh!" she exclaimed, "and sat there as gravely unruffled, as proper
and precise as a parson in a pulpit. See you now, perched upon a
corner of the desk, yet you perch so sublimely correct and solemn 'tis
vastly annoying. Could you ever contrive to lose your temper, I
wonder?"

"Never with a child," he answered, smiling.

Lady Betty stiffened and stared at him with proud head upflung, grew
very red, grew pale, and finally laughed; but her eyes glittered
beneath down-sweeping lashes as she ans