When he called her Baby, the pet name he had for her, she glanced up at him, almost as if she were startled. "Did you understand what I said to you last night?" "Perfectly; I've been thinking it all over, and I've come to a decision. I think you're quite right in what you wish me to do. As this isn't Leap Year, let me regularise the position. Mabel, I would like you to be my wife. Will you take me for your husband?" "You say that because you know you can't help yourself." "You are mistaken. If I didn't want to be your husband, nothing you or anyone could say or do could make me, rest assured of that. I won't pretend that, if things had turned out differently, I--should have suggested it; but, as they are, please, Mabel, let me do the proposing--say you will be my wife." "I'm going to be your wife; to-morrow, Thursday, at noon, and don't you make any mistake. There's the address of the registrar's office at which you're going to be married, and mind you're there to time." "Baby--you are only a baby, after all--don't talk like that; don't let's enter the matrimonial state as if we wished to cut each other's throats; let's start afresh on the old terms. I hope that when we're being married you won't have those white cheeks and unhappy eyes, or the registrar will think that I'm frightening you into being my bride, and you know that will be wrong." "Rodney, do you care for me a little bit?" "My dear Mabel, I care for you in an altogether different fashion from that which you suppose, as I hope to be able to prove to you before very long. Come, let's be friends." "Don't touch me--don't! Mother's waiting for me. She wants me for something; she told me not to be long. I--I want to speak to you before I go. I--I want to warn you against Mr. Dale." "You said something to that effect last night. Is Mr. Dale so dangerous?" "He's jealous of you." "Well, does that constitute him dangerous?" "He always has been throwing out nasty hints about you." "To whom? Surely not to you? You wouldn't listen to what you yourself call nasty hints about me coming from a man like Dale?" "It wasn't so much that I listened as that he was always at it whenever he came near me. I couldn't stop him. I suppose that my asking him about your going to Brighton on Sunday, and my going to the inquest, and such-like, made him--made him----" "Yes? Made him what?" "Started him thinking. Anyhow, he's--he's been finding out things, and--I don't know that he hasn't found out. You take care of him!" "My dear Mabel, in what sense am I to take care of him? I'm inclined to think that I should rather like to have a talk with your friend Mr. Dale." "You'll do no good by that." "Shan't I? We'll see. Where is he to be found--in the booking office at Victoria Station?" "One week he goes early and comes back about six; the next he has his dinner first and doesn't come back till after one--this is his late week. He hasn't had his breakfast yet; he's still up in his room."