"I can't blame him," Teddy answered, "when there's you." She laughed again. "There has never been me for anyone besides yourself," she said. "If I lower the prize in your eyes by that admission I can't help it. And there's still left to you the choice of grabbing your machine out of the hedge and riding away." Teddy Bolitho sat gravely stiff and expectant. Beneath the light banter of her manner he caught at a deeper note. "Julie," he said nervously, "will you--If you don't mean anything, for God's sake I don't lead me to hope falsely... You know that I've loved you for years with the whole force of my nature. There's no one else for me though I live to be a hundred. I've met you... That's enough. It's you or no one. I'm not much of a catch, but if you'll have me, such as I am, I'll spend my life in trying to make you happy." "You make me happy as it is, Teddy," she answered quietly. "It is I who will need to spend my life in trying to satisfy you." CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. Lawless' stay in Cape Town was so much longer than he had expected that he began to fear Tottie had not been so successful as her vanity had led her to suppose. He looked daily for news of her; but she was no hand at corresponding; until she had something definite to tell him he knew she would not write. In the end it was not a letter but a telegram that reached him. It had been handed in at Ceres Road. Beyond this clue as to her whereabouts, the contents told him little. "_go to junction hotel kraaifontein find instructions there tottie_." He hunted up the trains. There was nothing before the morning. He packed a portmanteau in readiness, and sat down and wrote to Colonel Grey. "Dear Sir,--I have received my summons. Am off up the line to-morrow. Junction Hotel, Kraaifontein, will find me. I will keep you informed as to my movements.--Yours faithfully, H. Lawless." "That will keep the old boy quiet for a time," he mused, and went out and posted it himself.