all! Nan, there's no one else, is there?"

"No," she said very low.

He stretched out his arms and drew her gently within them, and for a
moment she had neither the heart nor the courage to wipe that look of
utter happiness from his face by telling him the truth, by saying
blankly: "I don't love you."

He turned her face up to his and, stooping, kissed her with sudden
passion.

"My dear!" he said, "my dear!" Then, after a moment:

"Oh, Nan, Nan, I can hardly believe that you really belong to me!"

Nan could hardly believe it either. It seemed just to have _happened_
somehow, and her conscience smote her. For what had she to give in
return for all the love he was offering her? Merely a little liking of
a lonely heart that wanted to warm itself at someone's hearth, and
beyond that a terrified longing to put something more betwixt herself
and Peter Mallory, to double the strength of the barrier which kept
them apart. It wasn't giving Trenby a fair deal!

"Roger," she said, at last, "I don't think I'd better belong to you.
No, listen!"--as he made a sudden movement--"I must tell you. There
_is_ someone else--only we can't ever be more than friends."

Roger stared, at her with the dawning of a new fear in his eyes. When
he spoke it was with a savage defiance.

"Then don't tell me! I don't want to hear. You're mine now, anyway."

"I think I ought--" she began weakly.

But he brushed her scruples aside.

"I'm not going to listen. You've said you'll marry me. I don't want
to hear anything about the other men who were. I'm the man who is.
And I'm going to drive you straight back to Mallow and tell everybody
about it. Then I'll feel sure of you."

Faced by the irrevocableness of her action, Nan was overtaken by
dismay. How recklessly, on the impulse of the moment, she had bartered
her freedom away! She felt as though she were caught in the meshes of
some net from which there was no escaping. A voice inside her head
kept urging: "_Time_! _Time_! _Give me time_!"

"Please, Roger," she began with unwonted humility. "I'd rather you
didn't tell people just yet."

But Trenby objected.

"I don't see that there's anything gained by waiting," he said doggedly.

"Time! . . . _Time_!" reiterated the voice inside Nan's head.

"To please me, Roger," she begged. "I want to think things over a bit
first."

"It's too late to think things over," he answered jealously. "You've
given me your promise.