the
afternoon came up. The prince spoke of an engagement. He was tied at
home, he said, from four to six. Some of the men began to chaff him, and
suggested that he was entertaining some lady friend, his latest
favorite--well, I dare say you can imagine the rest," John broke off.
"The prince, thoughtlessly, I am sure, and probably to get rid of them,
pleaded guilty. Then I came down to see you, and from what you said I
discovered that it was you who were to be his visitor."

Her fingers played nervously for a moment with the edge of the rug. She
drew it higher up.

"Well, when I left your house the first time this afternoon, I went
straight back to the prince. I pointed out to him that after what had
been said, as it might become known that you were his guest of to-day,
it would be better for him to postpone your visit. He agreed to do so."

"Was that all that passed between you?"

"Not quite," John replied. "He asked me what concern it was of mine, and
I told him exactly what my concern was. I told him I hoped that some day
you would be my wife."

She sat quite still, looking down upon the flaring lights. She was
filled with a restless desire to escape, to start the motor herself and
rush through the wet air into London and safety. And side by side with
that desire she knew that there was nothing in the world she wanted so
much as to stay just where she was, and to hear just the words she was
going to hear.

"So much for that!" John proceeded. "And now, please listen. I have
brought you out here because under these conditions I feel more master
of myself and my thoughts, and of the things I want to say to you.
Something takes me by the throat in your little drawing-room, with its
shaded lights, its perfume of flowers, and its atmosphere of perfection.
You sit enthroned there like the queen of a world I know nothing of, and
all the time letters and flowers and flattering invitations are showered
upon you from the greatest men in London. The atmosphere there stifles
me, Louise. Out here you are a woman and I a man, and those other things
fall away. I have tried my best to come a little way into sympathy with
your life. I want you now to make up your mind to come down a little way
into mine!"

She shook her head.

"We are still too far apart," she murmured. "Can't you understand that
yourself?"

"I have been a pupil for many months," he answered, turning toward her,
with one arm at the back of her cushions and