“Granting that I need a service,” said he, “forgive me if I ask--why should _you_ wish to do it?” “Now, that is more than ungrateful,” said she. “It is giving me credit for no fine feeling at all. Though I jest, do you think I do not remember how badly I treated you once? It is all over now--and no doubt you are grateful enough that it is so. But still the fact remains. I did treat you badly, and I should like to be able to feel that I had made some amend for it. So much for you. Now for Aimée”--her voice changed slightly. “Well, I owe a great deal to Aimée, and I would do a great deal for her. When it was a question of serving me, she did not think of herself at all; and, though I may be frivolous and shallow, I do not forget this.” “She certainly did not think of herself at all,” Kyrle agreed--looking at the graceful figure moving in front of them, and remembering the sea wall of St. Augustine. “I always said I would repay her if I could,” Fanny went on, “and I do not think I can repay her better than by rescuing her from the hands that have possession of her now, and saving her from marrying Percy Joscelyn.” The last shot struck home. Kyrle was himself astonished at the sense of consternation with which he started. “Is that thought of?” he asked. “_They_ think of it,” Fanny replied. “They are ready to move heaven and earth to accomplish it; but”--the tone of gleeful malice which he had heard before came into her voice--“I think we may defeat them, you and I, if you will say the word.” “What word is it that you wish me to say?” he asked. She looked up into his face again with bright eyes. “What word can it be,” she replied, “except the simple assertion that you wish to marry Aimée?” Fortunately for Kyrle, he had no opportunity to answer at the moment. They had by this time reached the Riva, and Joscelyn, turning, said, “Here is a gondola.” A few minutes later they were afloat on the broad expanse of moonlight-flooded water, with Venice--marvelous, mystical, beautiful--lying around them. The cabin had been removed from the gondola, and the ladies took the two cushioned seats, while the young men threw themselves down at their feet. And so they glided out into the silver night.