“Don’t,” he said shortly, “never mind about that—­now.  You needn’t be afraid of me, Laura—­there are decent chaps, you know, outside the Kingdom of Heaven, and one of them wants you to marry him, that’s how it is.  Will you?”

“I don’t wish to judge you, Mr. Lindsay, and I’m very much obliged, but I couldn’t dream of it.”

“Don’t dream of it; consider it, accept it.  Why, darling, you are half mine already—­don’t you feel that?”

Her arm was certainly warm within his and he had the possession of his eyes in her.  Her tired body even clung to him.  “Are you quite sure you haven’t begun to think of loving me?” he demanded.

“It isn’t a question of love, Mr. Lindsay, it’s a question of the Army.  You don’t seem to think the Army counts for anything.”

One is convinced that it wasn’t a question of love, the least in the world; but Lindsay detected an evasion in what she said, and the flame in him leaped up.

“Sweet, when love is concerned there is no other question.”

“Is that a quotation?” she asked.  She spoke coldly, and this time she succeeded in withdrawing her hand.  “I dare say you think the Army very common, Mr. Lindsay, but to me it is marching on a great and holy crusade, and I march with it.  You would not ask me to give up my life-work?”

“Only to take it into another sphere,” Duff said, unreflectively.  He was checked but not discouraged, impatient, but in no wise cast down.  She had not flown, she walked beside him placidly.  She had no intention of flight.  He tried to resign himself to the task of beating down her trivial objections, curbing his athletic impulse to leap over them.

“Another sphere”—­he caught a subtle pleasure in her enunciation.  “I suppose you mean high society; but it would never be the same.”

“Not quite the same.  You would have to drive to see your sinners in a carriage and pair, and you might be obliged to dine with them in—­what do ladies generally dine in?—­white satin and diamonds, or pearls.  I think I would rather see you in pearls.”  He was aware of the inexcusableness of the points he made, but he only stopped to laugh inwardly at their impression, watching the absorbed turn of her head.

“We might think it well to be a little select in our sinners—­most of them would be on Government House list, just as most of your present ones are on the lists of the charitable societies or the district magistrates.  But you would find just as much to do for them.”

“I should not even know how to act in such company.”

“You can go home for a year, if you like, to be taught, to some people I know; delightful people, who will understand.  A year!  You will learn in three months—­what odds and ends there are to know.  I couldn’t spare you for a year.”