fogey, Mona."

"You are not," she replied closing her fingers upon his with something
of the strong supple grip, in which she had held his hand when to relax
her grasp of it meant death--his death. Now it seemed as though that
same grasp was in accord with her thoughts, holding him back from
something else; from the Past, perhaps; from the effects of that marring
of his life to which he had made so direct an allusion. Yet to what
nature did that allusion apply? A chill seemed to hold her heart
paralysed for the moment. Should she ask him? Here was her
opportunity. Would it not be wiser--nay only in accord with the very
first dictates of common sense? Confusion to the dictates of common
sense! Let the past take care of itself, and the future too. The
present was hers--was theirs, and the present was very good, very fair,
very sunny; glowing, golden, enchanting with the strong wine of love.
Do we refuse to take advantage of a cloudless day because the morrow may
be black and overcast, and furious with rolling thunder and volleying
squalls of rain? No. The cloudless day was hers--was theirs. Let the
morrow take care of itself.

"You are nothing of the sort," she continued. "So I give you new life,
do I? Roden dear, I might say the same--I love to talk with you like
this. I knew I should from the first moment we met. And Grace had said
the very thing you have just said of yourself, when I asked her what you
were like, `Quite a middle-aged fogey.'"

"Oh, the mischief she did! I shall have a row with Mrs Grace about
that."

"Ah, but wait. She only said she had heard so, for she hadn't seen you,
and of course had no idea of your identity with her knight errant during
the post-cart journey. In the latter capacity you should have heard all
the nice things she said about you. Charlie declared himself sick of
the very name of the unknown, only he didn't know it, for that she
seemed to have got him on the brain; which I amended by saying I rather
thought she had got him on the heart. Then Grace was cross."

Roden laughed queerly.

"Well, Mona, and so ought I to be, for that was the very way to prepare
me the most unfavourable reception. Come now, isn't it an invariable
rule that the individual much-belauded in advance turns out a sure
disappointment on acquaintance?"

"It is the rule. But every rule has its exceptions."

"Meaning me. Thank you. I can appreciate the delightfulness of the
complimen