ee, one never knows."

He reached up a hand to her, and, wondering a little at herself, she
gave him her own to assist him to rise.

He got to his feet and stood before her--a loose-limbed, awkward figure
that towered above her, making her feel rather small.

"It's done, then, is it?" he questioned, still keeping her hand in his.

She looked up at him with a nervous laugh. Secretly she was wondering
how far he was going to carry the joke.

"Why, of course," she said. "Can you imagine any sane woman refusing
such a magnificent offer?"

Though she suffered that ring of mockery in her voice, she was still
thinking as she spoke that it would serve him right if she frightened
him well by letting him imagine that she was taking him seriously.

"Good!" said Tots, in the tone of one well pleased with his bargain. "It
shall be my business to see that you do not regret it."

And with the words he drew her hand through his arm, laughing back at
her with baffling complacence, and led her down the long lawn with the
air of one who had taken possession.

* * * * *

Ruth Carey had been accustomed to fend for herself nearly all her life.
Her lot had been cast in a very narrow groove, and it had not contained
a single gleam of romance to make it beautiful. The whole of her early
girlhood had been spent buried in a country vicarage, utterly out of
touch with all the rest of the world. Here she had lived with her
grandfather, leading a wild and free existence, wholly independent of
society, hewing, as it were, a way for herself in a desert that was very
empty and almost unthinkably barren.

Then, when she was eight-and-twenty, a silent, curiously undeveloped
woman, the inevitable change had come. Her grandfather had died, and she
had gone out at last beyond the sky-line of her desert into the crowded
thoroughfares of men.

The gay crowd of cousins with whom she made her home found her
unattractive, and took no special pains to discover further. They were
all younger than she was, and full to the brim of their own various
interests. Of the five girls, three were already engaged, and one was on
the eve of marriage.

It was at this juncture that Tots had lounged into Ruth's consideration
and proposed himself as a candidate for her favour.

Tots was a familiar friend of the family. Every one liked him in a
tolerant, joking sort of way. No one took him seriously. He was to act
as best man at the