"So I shan't marry for years, if at all," continued Miss Gaymer, with the air of one propounding an entirely new theory. "Not until I'm getting _passée_ at any rate, and only then if I could find a man whom it wouldn't give me the creeps to think of spending the rest of my life with. Besides, the moment one gets engaged all the other men drop off,--all the nice ones, at any rate,--and that would never do. Don't you think my system is a sensible one?" "It comes hard on the men," said Hughie. "Yes, poor dears!" said Miss Gaymer sympathetically. "Still, one man is so tiresome and a lot is so nice!" With which concise and not unmasterly summary of the marriage question, as viewed through the eyes of the modern maiden, Miss Gaymer turned the conversation into other channels, and the idyll terminated. Half an hour later they were called into the house, to make ready for a boating expedition. Joan, with her usual frankness, reverted for a moment before they left the seclusion of the trees to the topic that was uppermost in their minds. "Hughie," she said softly, "does it hurt much?" "I don't quite know yet," said Hughie. "I mean, are you sad or angry--which? It usually takes a man one way or the other," observed this experienced damsel. "I don't know that I'm either," said Hughie meditatively; "the only feeling that I have just now is that I'm desperately sorry. But I'm not kicking." "It is my belief," remarked Miss Gaymer with sudden and pardonable asperity, "that you don't care for me in the least. Do you, now?" They were a very honest and sincere couple, these. For a full minute they looked each other in the face, without speaking. Then Hughie said,-- "Joey, I simply don't know! I thought I did half an hour ago, and I'd have sworn it last night, when--" He checked himself. "When what?" asked Joan swiftly. "Nothing," said Hughie. "That's rather beside the point now, isn't it?" Joan, curiosity struggling with honesty, nodded reluctantly. "Anyhow," continued Hughie, "I thought I did then, but I'm blessed if I know now. In fact," he added in a sudden burst of confidence, "sometimes I can't stand you at any price, Joey dear!" "Ah!" said Miss Gaymer, nodding a wise head, "I see you don't know your own mind yet. But you _will_--one way or another--as soon as you get away from me." * * * * * A week later another interview took place between the pair, on the same spot. "Business only this time, Joey!" said Hughie, with rather laborious cheerfulness. "All right. Did you have a good time in town?" inquired Miss Gaymer, in the inevitable manner of women and Orientals, who dislike coming to the point in matters of business without a few decent preliminaries. "Yes, thanks. I have been picking up old friends again, and generally settling down," said Hughie. "Got a flat, and a comic man-servant--Scotchman--introduce you some day. He--"