It was not cold walking, though, or Jeremy did not so find it. It was in his mind that now he had his chance, if he could find courage to use it and to force an issue. For him too Charley and Charley's sorrow had done something. They had induced in Eva a softer mood; the armour of her coquetry was pierced by a shaft of deep feeling. As they walked she was silent, forgetting to torment him, silently glad of his friendship and his company. She said nothing of Dora Hutting's good-fortune or of Mallam's good looks now. She was thinking of her mother's face as she welcomed Charley, and was musing on love. It was Jeremy's moment, if he could make use of it. But in this mood she rather frightened him, raising about herself defences different from the gleaming barrier of her coquetry, yet not less effective. He feared to disturb her thoughts, and it seemed to him that his wooing would be rude and rough. Suddenly she turned to him. "You'll be friends with Charley, won't you? Real friends, I mean? You won't let what--what's happened stand in the way? You see, he'll be awfully sensitive about it, and if he fancies you're hanging back, or anything of that kind----" Her eyes were very urgent in their appeal. "Of course I shall be friends with him; I shouldn't dream of----" "I'm sure you'll like him for his own sake, when you know him. And till then, for mother's sake, for our sake, you'll be nice to him, won't you?" "Do you care particularly about my being nice to him?" "Of course I do! We're friends, you see." Jeremy's fear wore off; excitement began to rise in him; the spirit of the game came upon him. He turned to his work. "Are we friends?" he asked. "You've not been very friendly lately." "Never mind me. Be friendly with Charley." "For your sake?" "For our sake, yes." "I said, for your sake." A smile dimpled through Eva's gravity. "'Your' is a plural, isn't it?" she asked. "Then--for thy sake?" said Jeremy. "That's singular, anyhow." "Oh, for my sake, then, if you think it worth while." "I don't think anything worth while except pleasing you, Eva. I used to manage it, I think; but somehow it's grown more difficult lately." He stopped in his walk and faced her. She walked on a pace or two, but he would not follow. Irresolutely she halted. "More difficult? Pleasing me grown more difficult?" "Well, pleasing you as much as I want to, I mean." Jeremy in his turn smiled for a moment; but he was in deadly earnest again as he stepped up to her and caught hold of her hands. "Now's the time," he said. "You've got to say yes or no." "You haven't asked me anything yet," she murmured, laughing, her eyes away from him and her hands in his. "Yes, I have, dozens of times--dozens and dozens. And I'm not going to ask it again--not in words, anyhow. You know the question." "It's horribly unfair to--to do this to-day--to-day, when I'm----"