She shook her head. "She doesn't. She thinks I'm bad form, and I daresay she's right. She also thinks--" she lifted her face suddenly, challenging him--"she also thinks that I set out to catch you--and succeeded." "She doesn't!" declared Bunny. "That's rot--damn' rot! You are not to say it. She's a very nice girl and ready to be friendly with you if you'll let her." Toby made a rude face. "I knew you were getting fond of her! She's pretty and stylish and--and much more in your line than I am. Why don't you go and ask her to marry you? She wouldn't say No." She flung the words with a little quivering laugh. She was trembling in his hold. Bunny's eyes had flashed to sudden anger. He had taken her by the shoulders almost as if he would shake her. "Toby, be quiet!" he commanded. "Do you hear? You're going too far! What do you mean by talking in this strain? What has she done to you?" "Nothing!" gasped back Toby, backing away from him in a vain effort to escape. "She hardly knows me even. It's just instinct with her and she can't help it. But she likes you well enough not to want you to marry me. You don't suppose--you don't suppose--" the words came breathlessly, jerkily--"you--you really don't suppose, do you, that--that she made that suggestion about a season in town for my sake?" "What other reason could she have had?" demanded Bunny sternly. Toby was laughing, but her laughter had a desperate sound. "How green you are! Must I really tell you that?" "Yes. Go on! Tell me!" His voice was hard. Hard also was the grip of his hands. He knew that in the moment he released her she would turn and flee like a fleeing hare. There was fear in the blue eyes that looked up to his, but they held a glare of defiance as well. Her small white teeth showed clenched between her laughing lips. "Go on! Tell me!" he reiterated. "You shan't go--I swear--until you tell me." "Think I'm--think I'm afraid of you?" challenged Toby, with boyish bravado. "I think you'll answer me," he said, and abruptly his tone fell level, dead level. He looked her straight in the eyes without anger, without mercy. "And you'll answer me now, too. What other reason could Miss Melrose have for making that suggestion if it was not intended for your benefit? Now answer me!" His face was pale, but he was master of himself. Perhaps he had learned from Jake that fundamental lesson that those who would control others must first control themselves. He still held her before him, but there was no violence in his hold. Neither was there any tenderness. It was rather of a judicial nature. And oddly at that moment a sudden gleam of appreciation shot up in Toby's eyes. She stood up very straight and faced him unflinching. "I don't mind answering you," she said. "Why should I? Someone will tell you sooner or later if I don't. She said that because she knew--and she wanted you to know--that I am not the sort of girl that men want to--marry."