ou," said Terry, glancing warily at me, "but it's a secret,
remember. You mustn't let any of those horrid newspaper men get hold of
it. Miss Mathers would hate awfully to have anything like this get into
the papers."

"Oh, go on, Terry," said I, crossly, "if you've got anything to tell,
for heaven's sake tell it!"

"Well, as far as we'd got when you interrupted, was that that afternoon
in the cave she and Radnor had somehow got separated from the rest of
the party and gone on ahead. They sat down to wait for the others on the
fallen column, and while they were waiting Radnor asked her to marry
him, for the seventh--or was it the eighth time?"

"The seventh, I think," said Polly.

"It's happened so often that, she's sort of lost track; but anyway, she
replied by asking him if he knew the truth about the ghost. He said,
yes, he did, but he couldn't tell her; it was somebody else's secret. On
his word of honor though there was nothing that he was to blame for. She
said she wouldn't marry a man who had secrets. He said that unless she
took him now, she would never have the chance again; it was the last
time he was going to ask her--is that straight, Miss Mathers?"

"Y-yes," sobbed Polly from the depths of her cushion.

Terry proceeded with a fast broadening smile; it was evident that he
enjoyed the recital.

"And then being naturally angry that any man should presume to propose
for the last time, she proceeded to be 'perfectly horrid' to him.--Go
on, Miss Mathers. That's as far as you'd got."

"I--I told him--you won't tell anyone?"

"No."

"I told him I'd decided to marry Jim Mattison."

"Ah--" said Terry. "Now we're getting at it! If you don't mind my
asking, Miss Mathers, was that just a bluff on your part, or had Mr.
Mattison really asked you?"

Polly sat up and eyed him with a sparkle of resentment.

"Certainly, he'd asked me--a dozen times."

"I beg pardon!" murmured Terry. "So now you're engaged to Mr. Mattison?"

"Oh, no!" cried Polly. "Jim doesn't know I said it--I didn't mean it; I
just wanted to make Radnor mad."

"I see! So it was a bluff after all? Were you successful in making him
mad?"

She nodded dismally.

"What did he say?"

"Oh, he was awfully angry! He said that if he never amounted to anything
it would be my fault."

"And then what?"

"We heard the others coming and he started off. I called after him and
asked him where he was going, and he said he was going to the d--devil."