o struggle away.

"Don't talk like that to me. It's insulting! Don't!" I said.

"Insulting! Say, ring off on that--will you? Insulting to ask a girl
to marry you! Say, that's good! Well, insulting or not, I've made up
my mind not to hang around any longer. I'll marry you tonight or not
at all! You needn't be afraid. I've got it all fixed up--license and
everything." He whipped a paper out of his pocket. "We'll surprise
'em, we will--you and I. I'm mad about you, and always have been. The
mater--huh! Be a shock to her--but she'll survive."

"I wouldn't elope with the king of England!" I said hotly. "What do you
think I am? Understand this, Breck. I require all the honors and high
ceremonies that exist."

"Damn it," he said, "you've been letting me come here without much
ceremony every night, late, on the quiet. What have you got to say to
that? I'm tired of seeing you pose on that high horse of yours. Come
down. You know as well as I you've been leading me along as hard as you
could for the last week. Good Lord--what for? Say, what's the game? I
don't know. But listen--if you don't marry me _now_, then you never
will. There's a limit to a man's endurance. Come, come, you can't do
better for yourself. You aren't so much. The mater will never come
around. She's got her teeth set. The car's ready. I shan't come again."

"Wait a minute," I said. "I'll be back in a minute." And I went straight
into the house and upstairs to my room, knelt down before my bureau and
drew out a blue velvet box. Breck's ring was inside.

Just as I was stealing down the stairs again, ever-on-the-guard, Edith
appeared in the hall in her nightdress.

"What are you after?" she asked.

For answer I held out the box toward her. She came down two or three of
the stairs.

"What you going to do with it?" she demanded.

"Give it back to Breck."

She grasped my wrist. "You little fool!" she exclaimed.

"But he wants me to run off with him. He wants me to elope."

"He does!" she ejaculated, her eyes large. "Well?" she inquired.

I stared up at Edith on the step above me in silence.

"Well?" she repeated.

"You don't mean----" I began.

"His mother is sure to come around in time. They always do. _My_ mother
eloped," she said.

"Edith Campbell Vars," I exclaimed, "do you actually mean----" I
stopped. Even in the dim light of the hall I saw her flush before my
blank astonishment. "Do you mean----"

"Well, if you don't," she interrupted i