and I
have waited and waited, and borne with a good deal. But then I was
hardly in a position to demand an answer; there would have been some
risk on your part, and I hesitated. Now there can be none. Dear Kate,
you are going to say one word!--and I shall go away down to all this sad
business that lies before me with a secret comfort that none of them
will suspect."

"It is too sudden, Percy," she said, lingeringly; "I must have time to
consider."

"What have you to consider?" he remonstrated.

"A great many things," she said, evasively. "You don't know how a girl
is situated. Here is papa coming to town this very morning; Jim and
Cicely have gone up to Paddington to meet him. Well, I don't know how he
might regard it. If you wanted me to leave the theatre altogether, it
would make a great difference; I do a good deal for Jim and Cicely."

"But, Katie," he said, and he took her hand in spite of her, "these are
only matters of business! Do you think I can't make all that straight?
Say yes!"--and he strove to draw her towards him, and would have kissed
her, but that she withdrew a step, with her cheeks flushing prettily
through the thin make-up of the morning.

"You must give me time, Percy," she said, with downcast eyes. "I must
know what papa says."

"What time?"

"Well--a week," she said.

"A week be it: I won't worry you beyond your patience, dear Kate," said
this infatuated young man. "But I know what you will have to say
then--to make me the happiest of human beings alive on this earth.
Good-bye, dearest!"

And with that he respectfully kissed her hand and took his leave; and so
soon as she was sure he was out of the house she rang for breakfast, and
called down to the little maid to look sharp with it, too. She was
startled and pleased in one direction, and, in another, perhaps a trifle
vexed; for what business had any man coming bothering her with a
proposal of marriage before breakfast? How could she help displaying a
little temper, when she was hungry and he over pertinacious? Yet she
hoped she had not been too outspoken in her anger, for there were
visions before her mind that somehow seemed agreeable.

That was another anxious day for those people in Piccadilly, for the
fever showed no signs of abating, while some slight delirium returned
from time to time. Nina, of course, was in constant attendance; and when
he began, in his wanderings, to speak of her and to ask Maurice what had
become of her,