“Now, don’t be silly,” she said with earnest anxiety.  “I won’t have it.  It’s putting false ideas in your head, because I’m really only playing, you know.”

“The shadow of love,” he suggested.

“Quite so.”

“And if—­” He leaned quite near.

“Not by any means,” she exclaimed, springing quickly to her feet.  “Come—­ come!  It’s quite time that we were going back to the house.”

“Why must we?” he remonstrated.

“You know why,” she said.  “It’s time we were being sensible.  When a man gets as near as you are, I prefer to be en promenade.  And don’t let us be foolish any longer, either.  Let us be cool and worldly.  How much money has your aunt, anyhow?”

Jack had risen, too.

“What impertinence!” he ejaculated.

“Not at all,” she said.  “Maude has so much money of her own that I ask in a wholly disinterested spirit.”

“She’s very rich,” said Jack.  “But if your spirit is so disinterested, what do you want to know for?”

“This is a world of chance, and the main chance in a woman’s case is alimony; so it’s always nice to know how to figure it.”

“It’s a slim chance for your cousin,” said Jack.  “Do tell her that I said so.”

“No, I shan’t,” said she perversely.  “I won’t be a go-between for you and her.  Besides, as to that alimony, there are more heiresses than Maude in our family.”

“Yes,” said he; “I know that.  But I know, too, that there is one among them who need never figure on getting any alimony out of me.  If I ever get the iron grasp of the law on that heiress, I can assure you that only her death or mine will ever loosen its fangs.”

“How fierce you are!” said Mrs. Rosscott.  “Why do you get so worked up?”

“Oh,” he exclaimed, with something approaching a groan, “I don’t mean to be—­but I do care so much!  And sometimes—­” he caught her quickly in his arms, drew her within their strong embrace, and kissed her passionately upon the lips that had been tantalizing him for five interminable months.

He was almost frightened the next second by her stillness.

“Don’t be angry,” he pleaded.

“I’m not,” she murmured, resting very quietly with her cheek against his heart.  “But you’ll have to marry me now.  My other husband did, you know.”

“Marry you!” he exclaimed.  “Next week?  To-morrow?  This afternoon?  You need only say when—­”

“Oh, not for years and years,” she said, interrupting him.  “You mustn’t dream of such a thing for years and years!”

“For years and years!” he cried in astonishment.

“That’s what I said,” she told him.

He released her in his surprise and stared hard at her.  And then he seized her again and kissed her soundly.

“You don’t mean it!” he declared.

“I do mean it!” she declared.

And then she shook her head in a very sweet but painfully resolute manner.