“I can well believe it,” said Jack, heavily, not ceasing to stare beyond as he said it.

(Married!)

“Oh, you’re flattering me!  Because she’s ever so much prettier than I am, and I know it.”

He didn’t reply.  It had suddenly come over him to wonder whether there ever had been an authentic case of heartbreak.  Because he had the most terrible ache right in his left side!

(Married!  Married!)

“But, then,” Miss Lome continued, “I’m younger than she is.  Her being married makes her seem young, but she’s really twenty-four.  I’m only twenty.”

He shut his eyes, and then opened them.  He wished he hadn’t come here, and then grew shivery to think that he might have happened not to; and all the while that awful twisting and wrenching at his heart was getting worse and worse.

(Married!  Married!  Married!)

Burnett came up just then with a man wearing a monocle and presented him to Denham, and forthwith handed the bony cousin to his safe-keeping.

“She’s a great pill, isn’t she?” he began, as the couple moved away; and then he stopped short.  “What’s the matter?” he asked.  “Sick?”

“I hope not,” said Jack, trying to smile.

“You look hipped,” his friend said anxiously.  “Better go get a bracer; you’ll have time if you hurry.  You can’t be sick before dinner, because I’ve been moving all the cards around so as to get Betty next to you, and I could never get them back as they were before if you gave out at the last minute.”

“I don’t believe I’m ill,” said Jack, trying to realize whether the news that she was to be his (for dinner) made him feel any better or only just about the same.  “I don’t know what ails me.  Do I look seedy?”

“You look sort of knocked out, that’s all,” said Burnett.  “Perhaps, though, it was just the having to talk to my cousin Maude so long.  Isn’t she the limit, though?  But I’ll tell you the one big thing about that girl:  She’s just the biggest kind of a catch.  She was my uncle’s eldest child; she’s worth twelve times what any of us ever will be.”

“I’m sure she’ll need it,” said Jack heartily.

“You’re right there,” laughed his friend; “but you’ve got to hurry and get your brandy now if you want it, because they’ll be going out in a minute.”

“Oh, I’m all right,” said the poor chap, straightening his shoulders back a little.  “I can make out well enough, I’m sure.  I think I’d better go over by your sister and let her know that I’m ready when the hour of need shall strike.”

Burnet nodded and then he went on and his friend walked down the room, no one but himself knowing that he was making his way into the lion’s (or, rather, lioness’s) den.

And then he paused there beside her.  Oh! she Was seven million times lovelier close to than far away.  All the rot about Venus and statues and paintings and Helen of Troy was nowhere beside Her and he felt his strength come surging mightily upward and then—­oh Heavens!