d, taking out two shelves, he carefully
laid them on a table.

"There they are," he said with a rather nervous smile. "I've no doubt
the things are interesting, and if our friends come up they can look at
them. But it wasn't Benares brassware that brought me up here."

"Wasn't it?" Millicent asked demurely.

"Certainly not! One couldn't talk with Foster enlarging upon the only
rational way of rearing pheasants!" He paused a moment. "You know I'm
going away the first thing to-morrow," he added softly.

"Yes; I know. I'm sorry."

"Truly sorry? You mean that?"

He gave her a searching glance and then laid his hand on her shoulder,
holding her a little away from him.

"Dear little girl," he said, "you don't know what a struggle it is
between the knowledge of the duty I owe you and my own selfish
longing--my uncontrollable longing for you. You are very young and
beautiful, and I love you--but I am a broken man."

"Does that matter, when it is through no fault of yours?" She smiled
up at him as she spoke.

For one instant he hesitated; then, all his good resolutions forgotten,
he gathered the girl in his arms.

"Millicent!" he breathed. Then, after a long silence: "We'll laugh at
cold-blooded prudence and take our chances. It's a wide world, and
we'll find a nook; somewhere if we go out and look for it. All my care
will be to smooth the trail for you, dear."

They spent a half-hour in happy talk, and Blake murmured when Millicent
protested that they must go back; and she feared that her lover's
exultant air would betray them as they entered the drawing-room.

"Where's the key?" Challoner asked.

"I'm afraid I forgot it, sir," Blake confessed. "Very sorry, but I'm
not even sure I put the things away."

Challoner rang a bell and gave an order to a servant.

"Did you see the Buddha?" he asked Millicent.

"No," she said. "I don't think so."

"Or the brass plate with the fantastic serpent pattern round the rim?"

"I'm afraid I didn't," Millicent answered in confusion.

Challoner looked hard at Blake, and then his eyes twinkled.

"Well," he laughed, "perhaps it wasn't to be expected."

There was a moment's silence. Millicent looked down with the color in
her face; Blake stood very straight, smiling at the others.

"We are all friends here," he said, "and I'm proud to announce that
Millicent has promised to marry me as soon as I return from Canada."
He bowed to Mrs. Keith and the Colonel. "