ere could
be any question of tying new ones. There would be at least one
dreadful interview to be gone through with John Fulton; many
readjustments of friendships, some friends would side with him, some
with her; and last and worst, that moment when I should have to tell my
mother and she would grow old before my eyes.

"There'll be heaps of little worries and troubles, Lucy, dear," I said;
"bound to be. But we'll not begin to think about them till John comes
back from Palm Beach. If it's wrong for us to love each other at all,
at least we are going to make it as right as we can. We owe ourselves
all the unalloyed happiness we can lay hands on. So--let's pretend."

We sat on the sofa in the Fultons' living-room holding hands, like two
children.

"Let's pretend," I said, "that there aren't any complications; that
time has gone backward ten years; that we've just gotten engaged; that
there's nobody to disapprove and be unhappy about it. I can pretend
true, if you can."

"It's easy for me," said Lucy; "I was never any good at remembering or
looking forward, never any good at anything that wasn't going on right
there and then. Oh, I'm so glad it's _you_!"

"Why, Lucy?"

"Because you're not a bit like me. If you were like me, we wouldn't
think of what would happen later on, we'd just go away together. It's
so complicated and foolish to think we can't. Laws and people make
such a snarl of things. I wouldn't try to untangle it, I'd just cut it
all to pieces, and then I suppose we'd be sorry."

"Yes, dear, we'd be very, very sorry. And the world would make us
suffer almost more than our love could make up to us for. So we'll
just have to pretend for a while."

"And besides," she said in a startled sort of way, "I might fall out of
love with you, mightn't I? Oh, I've fallen out of love lots of
times--then with John, and maybe I'll fail you. You must know that I'm
not any good. But even if I'm not, I do love you. Oh, I do."

"Do you?"

"And I _trust_ you so. There's nobody so kind and thoughtful and
strong."

It is pleasant for an unkind, thoughtless weak man to be told such
untruths by the woman he loves. And for a few moments I imagined I had
the qualities that she had wished upon me, nay, loved upon me. For a
few moments there was no kindness, no thoughtfulness, no strength of
which I was incapable.

"When your arms are around me I know that nothing can hurt me."

I was holding her in my a