He, thinking her smile incredulous, resumed:  “You doubt this?”

“I cannot help thinking that you are mistaken.”

“How can I assure you that I am not?”

“I do not know.  Why is it essential that I should be so assured?”

He felt that he was being worsted, and feared that she had detected the absence of unselfish good-will and honest purpose toward her.  He was angry with himself and her because of the dilemma in which he was placed.  Yet what could he say to the serene, smiling girl before him, whose unflinching blue eyes looked into his with a keenness of insight that troubled him?  His one thought now was to achieve a retreat in which he could maintain the semblance of dignity and good breeding.

With a light and deferential laugh he said:  “I am taught, unmistakably, Miss Vosburgh, that my regard, whatever it may be, is of little consequence to you, and that it would be folly for me to try to prove a thing that would not interest you if demonstrated.  I feel, however, that one question is due to us both,—­Is my society a disagreeable intrusion?”

“If it had been, Mr. Merwyn, you would have been aware of the fact before this.  I have enjoyed your conversation this morning.”

“I hope, then, that in the future I can make a more favorable impression, and that in time you will give me your hand.”

Her blue eyes never left his face as he spoke, and they grew dark with a meaning that perplexed and troubled him.  She merely bowed gravely and turned away.

Never had his complacency been so disturbed.  He walked homeward with steps that grew more and more rapid, keeping pace with his swift, perturbed thoughts.  As he approached his residence he yielded to an impulse; leaped a wall, and struck out for the mountains.

CHAPTER XIII.

A siege begun.

“Either she is seeking to enhance her value, or else she is not the girl I imagined her to be at all,” was Willard Merwyn’s conclusion as he sat on a crag high upon the mountain’s side.  “Whichever supposition is true, I might as well admit at once that she is the most fascinating woman I ever met.  She is a woman, as she claims to be.  I’ve seen too many mere girls not to detect their transparent deceits and motives at once.  I don’t understand Marian Vosburgh; I only half believe in her, but I intend to learn whether there is a girl in her station who would unhesitatingly decline the wealth and position that I can offer.  Not that I have decided to offer these as yet, by any means, for I am in a position to marry wealth and rank abroad; but this girl piques my curiosity, stirs my blood, and is giving wings to time.  At this rate the hour of our departure may come before I am ready for it.  I was mistaken in one respect the first evening I met her.  Lane, as well as Strahan and others, would marry her if they could.