ut the sorrow in it frightened him.

"Come into the study," she said, freeing her hands from his grasp; "we
can't talk here."

The study door was open; he followed her in silence, and, shutting the
door, sat down beside her on the sofa.

"Larry, we've got to face it, you know; we've got to face it," she
began, and gave back to him her slender sensitive hand, as if to heal
the wound of what the words implied.

"Face what?" said Larry, stubbornly, girding himself for resistance.

"Face delay--opposition--"

"I'll face opposition as much as you like, but I won't face delay! Why
should we? We're of age. There's nothing against me!"

Christian smiled faintly.

"Dear child, I know that. It's not the facts that are against us, it's
the fancies--"

"I won't be patronised!" said Larry, vehemently. "I'm not your dear
child! I'm the man you've promised to marry! No one's fancies have a
right to interfere with us!"

His arm was round her, and he felt her tremble. He loosed her hand,
and with his hand that had held it he turned her face to his. Then he
kissed her, many times, with an ever-growing abandonment as he felt
the response that she tried in vain to withhold.

At length, in spite of him, she hid her face in his shoulder.

"No, Larry, no!" she gasped, her breath coming short. "Dearest, don't
be cruel to me! How can I keep that promise! If you had seen Papa just
now and Mother--her terror and her helplessness! How could I leave
them? Supposing that I defied him, and married you, and that he died
in one of these furies! Just think what that would be for us!"

"He wouldn't die!" said Larry, obstinately. "People don't die as easy
as all that!" he added, with a fierce thought of regret that Dick had
not gone out in this latest storm.

"Listen," said Christian, beseechingly. "Don't let us be in such a
hurry. Everything needn't be settled at once. We'll ask Dr. Mangan how
Papa is, and if there is real danger for him in these rages. He was
nearly as bad on Saturday after the Priest and the tenants had been
here."

Larry's face was dark; he was not used to opposition. His guardians
and his spiritual directors had alike found that while he was easy to
lead, he was a difficulty and a danger to drive. He was stirred to the
depths now. The strain of receiving Dick's onslaught in silence, the
shock of his collapse, and now the fire that Christian's nearness and
dearness had lit in him, all broke his self-control. He held