ou, that's all, and you'll come on
famously. I can tell you this: that I think she likes you very well
already."

"Your words are like a shower of light, a fragrant wind. Benjamin, I am
hot with happiness! When may I speak to her?"

"I don't know. She may have guessed something out of what you said
to-night." He swallowed a smile. "You might speak to her about this
marriage to-morrow."

"It will be hard; but I shall wait."

"And then you'll have to go out of the Garden with her to get married."

"Out of the Garden? Never! Why should we?"

"Why, you'll need a minister, you know, to marry you."

"True. Then I shall send for one."

"But he might not want to make this long journey for the sake of one
marriage ceremony."

"There are ways, perhaps, of persuading him to come," said David, making
a grim gesture.

"No force or you ruin everything."

"I shall be ruled by you, brother. It seems I have little knowledge."

"Go easy always and you'll come out all right. Give her plenty of time.
A woman always needs a lot of time to make up her mind, and even then
she's generally wrong."

"What do you mean by that?"

"No matter. She'll probably want to go back to her home for a while."

"Leave me?"

"Not necessarily. But you, when a man gets engaged, it's sometimes a
couple of years between the time a woman promises to marry him and the
day of the ceremony."

"Do they wait so long, and live apart?"

"A thousand miles, maybe."

"Then you men beyond the mountains are made of iron!"

"Do you have to be away from her? Why not go along with her when she
goes home?"

"Surely, Benjamin, you know that a law forbids it!"

"You make your own laws in important things like this."

"It cannot be."

And so the matter rested when Connor left his host and went to bed. He
had been careful not to press the point. So unbelievably much ground had
been covered in the first few hours that he was dizzy with success. It
seemed ages since that Ruth had come running to him in the patio in
terror of her life. From that moment how much had been done!

Closing his eyes as he lay on his bed, he went back over each incident
to see if a false step had been made. As far as he could see, there had
not been a single unsound measure undertaken. The first stroke had been
the masterpiece. Out of a danger which had threatened instant
destruction of their plan she had won complete victory by her facing of
David, and when she put her hand in