"And you have a father?" he added, feeling vaguely that the ideal marriage would be one between orphans, whose surviving relatives were abroad and afraid of a voyage. "Do you think they will give you to me?" "After I've spoken to them," she said deliciously. "Yes--oh, they will be nice, I am sure, Mr. Kent!... There, then! But one can't shorten it, and it sounds a disagreeable sort of person." "Not as you said it." "It was very wrong of you to make me say it so soon. Are you a tyrant?... We must really go back to mamma!" "Did you know I was fond of you?" asked Kent. "I--wandered." "Why?" "Why did I wonder?" "Yes." "I don't know." "No; tell me! Was it because--you liked me?" "You're vain enough already." "Haven't I an excuse for vanity?" "_Am_ I an excuse?" Language failed him. "Tell me why you wondered," he begged. "Because----You're wickedly persistent!" "I am everything that is awful. Cynthia?" "Yes?" "Because you liked me?" "Perhaps; the weeniest scrap in the world. Oh, you _are_ horrid! What things you make me say! And we are only just----" "Engaged! It's a glorious word; don't be afraid of it." "I shall be afraid of _you_ in a minute. How do you think of your--your proposals in your books?" "I've only written one book." "Did you make it up? He didn't talk as you talk to _me_? "He wasn't so madly in love with her." "But he said the very sweetest things!" "That's why." "You are horrid!" she declared again. "I don't know what you mean a bit.... Mr. Kent---" "Who is _he_?" "Humphrey---" "Yes--sweetheart?" "Now you've put it out of my head." She laughed softly. "I was going to say something." "Let me look at you till you think what it was." "Perhaps that wouldn't help me." "Oh, you're an angel!" he exclaimed. "Cynthia, we shall always remember Arques?" She breathed assent. "Was this Joan of Arc's Arques?" "No--Noah's." "_Whose?_" she said. He was penitent; he made haste to add: "Not hers; it is spelt differently, besides." "I believe you're being silly," she said, in a puzzled tone. "I don't understand. Oh, we _must_ go back to mamma; she'll think we're lost!"