force behind it that gripped her irresistibly. She could
not speak in answer.

"I will tell you," he said, and his dark, face laughed into hers with a
merriment half-mischievous, half-kindly. "I am treading the path of
virtue, _mignonne_, and uncommon lonely I'm finding it. You shall relieve
the monotony. We will be virtuous together--for a while. You shall be--my
wife!"

He stooped with the words and ere she knew it his lips were on her own.
But his kiss, though tender, was as baffling as his smile. It was not the
kiss of a lover.

She gasped and shrank away. "Your--wife! You--you--you're joking! How
could I--I--be your wife?"

"You and none other!" he declared gaily. "Egad, it's the very thing for
us! Why did I never think of it before? I will order the state-coach at
once. We will go to town--elope and be married before the world begins
to buzz. What are you frightened at, sweetheart? Why this alarm? Wouldn't
you rather be my wife than--the dust beneath my feet?"

"I--I don't know," faltered Toby, and hid her face from the dancing
raillery in his eyes.

His hold was close and sheltering, but he laughed at her without mercy.
"Does the prospect make you giddy? You will soon get over that. You will
take the world by storm, _mignonne_. You will be the talk of the town."

"Oh, no!" breathed Toby. "No, I couldn't!"

"What?" he jested. "You are going to refuse my suit?"

She turned and clung to him with a passionate, even fierce intensity, but
she did not lift her face again to his. Her voice came muffled against
his breast. "I could never refuse you--anything."

"_Eh, bien!_ Then all is well!" he declared. "My bride will hold her own
wherever she goes, save with her husband. And to him she will yield her
wifely submission at all times. Do you know what they will say--all of
them--when they hear that Charles Rex is married at last?"

"What?" whispered Toby apprehensively.

He bent his head, still laughing. "Shall I tell you? Can't you guess?"

"No. Tell me!" she said.

He touched the soft ringlets of her hair with his lips. "They will say,
'God help his wife!' _mignonne_. And I--I shall answer 'Amen'."

She lifted her face suddenly and defiantly, her eyes afire. "Do you know
what I shall say if they do?" she said.

"What?" said Saltash, his own eyes gleaming oddly.

"I shall tell them," said Toby tensely, "to--to--to go to blazes!"

He grimaced his appreciation. "Then they will begin to pity the husban