wed her
eyes. She was watching Captain Vidall and Marion. He guessed what she
was thinking--how different her own wooing had been from theirs, how
concerning her courtship she had not one sweet memory--the thing that
keeps alive more love and loyalty in this world than anything else.
Presently General Armour joined them, and Frank's opportunity was over
for the present.

Captain Vidall and Marion were engaged in a very earnest conversation,
though it might not appear so to observers.

"Come, now, Marion," he said protestingly, "don't be impossible. Please
give the day a name. Don't you think we've waited about long enough?"

"There was a man in the Bible who served seven years."

"I've served over three in India since I met you at the well, and that
counts double. Why so particular to a day? It's a bit Jewish. Anyhow,
that seven years was rough on Rachel."

"How, Hume? Because she got passee?"

"Well, that counted; but do you suppose that Jew was going to put in
those seven years without interest? Don't you believe it. Rachel paid
capital and interest back, or Jacob was no Jew. Tell me, Marion, when
shall it be?"

"Hume, for a man who has trifled away years in India, you are strangely
impatient."

"Mrs. Lambert says that I have the sweetest disposition."

"My dear sir!"

"Don't look at me like that at this distance, or I shall have to wear
goggles, as the man did who went courting the Sun."

"How supremely ridiculous you are! And I thought you such a sensible,
serious man."

"Mrs. Lambert put that in your head. We used to meet at the annual
dinners of the Bible Society."

"Why do you tell me such stuff?"

"It's a fact. Her father and my aunt were in that swim, and we were
sympathisers."

"Mercenary people!"

"It worked very well in her case; not so well in mine. But we conceived
a profound respect for each other then. But tell me, Marion, when is it
to be? Why put off the inevitable?"

"It isn't inevitable--and I'm only twenty-three."

"Only twenty-three,
And as good fish in the sea"

he responded, laughing. "Yes, but you've set the precedent for a
courtship of four years and a bit, and what man could face it?"

"You did."

"Yes, but I wasn't advertised of the fact beforehand. Suppose I had seen
the notice at the start: 'This mortgage cannot be raised inside of four
years--and a bit!' There's a limit to human endurance."

"Why shouldn't I hold to the number, but alter t