“But wasn’t he very angry?”

“Oh, pshaw!” said Dick.  “What of it?”

She was looking at him intently, for there was something merciless about his smile.  “Do you always do that, I wonder,” she said, “with the people who make you angry?”

“Do what?” he said.

“Kick them out.”  Her voice held a doubtful note.

He turned his hand upwards and clasped hers.  “My darling, it was a perfectly just sentence.  He deserved it.  Also—­though I admit I have only thought of this since—­it’s the best thing that could happen to him.  He can make his own way in life.  It’s high time he did so.  I didn’t kick him out because I was angry with him either.”

“But you were angry,” she said.  “You were nearly white-hot.”

He laughed.  “I kept my hands off him anyhow.  But I can’t be answerable for the consequences if anyone sets to work to bait Robin persistently.  It’s not fair to the boy—­to either of us.”

“Do you think Robin might do him a mischief?” she asked.

“I think—­someone might,” he answered grimly.  “But never mind that now!  You don’t regard Robin as a just cause and impediment.  What’s the next obstacle?  My profession?”

“No,” she said instantly and emphatically.  “I like that part of you.  There’s something rather quaint about it.”

His quick smile flashed upon her.  “Oh, thanks awfully!  I’m glad I’m quaint.  But I didn’t know it was a quality that appealed to you.  I’ve been laying even odds with myself that I’d make you have me in spite of it.”

She coloured a little.  “It doesn’t really count one way or the other with me, Dick, any more than it would count with you if I hawked stale fish in the street for cat’s meat.  You see I haven’t forgotten that pretty compliment of yours.  But—­”

“But?” he said, frowning whimsically.  “We’ll have the end of that sentence, please.  It’s the very thing I want to get at.  What is the ’but’?”

She hesitated.

“Go on!” he commanded.

“Don’t be a tyrant, Dick!” she said.

“My beautiful princess!” He touched her shoulder with his lips.  “Then don’t you—­please—­be a goose!  Tell me—­quick!”

“And if I can’t tell you, Dick?  If—­if it’s just an instinct that says, Wait?  We’ve been too headlong as it is.  I can’t—­I daren’t—­go on at this pace.”  She was almost tearful.  “I must have a little breathing-space indeed.  I came here for peace and quietness, as you know.”

He broke into a sudden laugh.  “So you did, dear.  You were playing hide-and-seek with yourself, weren’t you?  I’ll bet you never expected to find the other half of yourself in this remote corner, did you?  Well, never mind!  Don’t cry sweetheart—­anyhow till you’ve got a decent excuse.  I don’t want to rush you into anything against your will.  Taken properly, I’m the meekest fellow in creation.  But we must have things on a sensible footing.  You see that, don’t you?”