England might need you!"

"You hit hard, Miss Briskett."

"I hit straight. I know just how you've suffered. Seems to me I'm
going to remember all my life how you sat in that ranch and heard the
last post; but if I'd been in your place, if America had wanted me"--her
small, white face lit up with a very ecstasy of emotion--"I'd have
stayed at my post, _if I'd had to sweep the floors to do it_!"

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

The moment of tension passed, and the strain relaxed. Captain Guest
stoutly defended his position, and Cornelia vouchsafed a generous
sympathy, while not budging an inch from her ultimate decision. She
disapproved, but she had wept; the tears had rolled unchecked down her
cheeks on his behalf. After that they could no longer be mere, casual
acquaintances.

By the end of the first hour they had left the personal element behind,
and were chatting busily about a dozen varying subjects--the English
landscape; Trusts; Free Trade; Miss Alice Roosevelt; chafing dishes, and
the London season. Cornelia had a cut-and-dried opinion on each, and
was satisfied that every one who did not agree with her was a "back
number," but her arguments and illustrations were so apt and humorous,
that Guest was abundantly entertained. Throughout the entire journey
their _tete-a-tete_ was uninterrupted, for though several passengers
approached the carriage with intent to enter, one and all followed the
example of the stout lady, and dropped the handle at sight of the two
occupants. The third time that this interesting little pantomime was
enacted Cornelia laughed aloud, and cried serenely--

"Guess they think we're a honeymoon couple; they're so scared of getting
in beside us!"

Her colour showed not the faintest variation as she spoke. It was Guest
who grew hot and embarrassed, and was at a loss how to reply. He need
not have troubled himself, however, for Cornelia continued her
exposition touching the superiority of American everything, over the
miserable imitations of other countries, with hardly as much as a
comma's pause for breath.

Guest sat back in his corner, looking at her with every appearance of
attention, but in reality his thoughts were engaged in following a
bewildering suggestion.

"They think we are a honeymoon couple." ... Suppose--it was folly, of
course, but for one moment, _suppose they were_! He would be looking at
his wife! She would smile across at him, and call him fond, silly
little n