I can't--I can't give him up without knowing."

Preston grimaced wryly, but he was shrewd enough to grasp and hold
such advantage as was his. "Well, failing him, you'll have me,
what? That's a promise, is it?"

She looked at him again. "If you want me under those conditions."

He put his arms about her. "Of course I want you, Cherry-ripe!
We'd be awfully happy together, you and I. I'll soon make you
forget him, if that's all. You can't be very deeply in love with
the fellow after all this time. I don't suppose he's in the least
the sort of person you take him for. You're wastin' your time over
a myth. Come, it's settled, isn't it? We're engaged."

He pressed her closer. He bent to kiss her, but she turned her
face away. His lips only found her neck, but he made the most of
that. She had to exert her strength to free herself.

"No," she said. "We're not engaged. We can't be engaged--until I
have heard from Guy."

He suppressed a short word of impatience. "And suppose you don't
hear?" he asked.

She made a blind movement with her hands. "Then---I give in."

"You will marry me?" he insisted.

"If you like," she answered drearily. "I expect you will very soon
get tired of me."

"There's a remedy for everything," he answered jauntily. "But we
needn't consider that. I'm just mad to get you, you poor little
icicle. I'll warm you up, never fear. When you've been married to
me a week, you won't know yourself." She shivered and was silent.

He turned in his tracks, perceiving he was making no headway.
"Then we're engaged provisionally anyway," he insisted. "There's
no need to contradict the general impression--unless we're obliged.
We'll behave like lovers--till further notice."

She got to her feet. Her knees were trembling. The net was close
at last. She seemed to feel it pressing on her throat. "You are
not--to kiss me," she managed to say.

He frowned at the condition, but he conceded it. The game was so
nearly his that he could afford to be generous. Besides, he would
exact payment in full later for any little concessions she wrung
from him now.

"I'm bein' awfully patient," he said pathetically. "I hope you'll
take that into account. You really might just as well give in
first as last."

But Sylvia had given in, and she knew it. Nothing but a miracle
could save her now. The only loophole she had for herself was one
which she realized already was highly unlikely to serve