He was amused at her fidelity to the romance which surrounded his name. "Dear child, I am not a 'knight of old'--don't think it!" he said. "You mustn't run away with that idea and make me a kind of sixteenth-century sentimentalist. I couldn't live up to it!" "You are more than a knight of old," she answered, proudly--"You are a great genius!" He was embarrassed by her simple praise. "No," he answered--"Not even that--sweet soul as you are!--not even that! You think I am--but you do not know. You are a clever, imaginative little girl--and I love to hear you praise me--but--" Her lips touched his shyly and sweetly. "No 'buts!'" she said,--"I shall always stop your mouth if you put a 'but' against any work you do!" "In that way?" he asked, smiling. "Yes! In that way." "Then I shall put a 'but' to everything!" he declared. They laughed together like children. "Where is Miss Leigh all this while?" he queried. She started, awaking suddenly to conventions and commonplaces. "Poor little godmother! She must be wondering where I am! But I did not leave her,--she left me when the Duke took charge of me--I lost sight of her then." "Well, we must go and find her now"--and Jocelyn again folded his arms closely round the dainty, elf-like figure in its moonlight-blue draperies. "Innocent, look at me!" She lifted her eyes, and as she met his, glowing with the fervent fire of a new passion, her cheeks grew hot and she was thankful for the darkness. His lips closed on hers in a long kiss. "This is our secret!" he said--"You must not speak of it to anyone." "How could I speak of it?" she asked, wonderingly. He let her go from his embrace, and taking her hand began to walk slowly with her towards the house. "You might do so," he continued--"And it would not be wise!--neither for you in your career, nor for me in mine. You are famous,--your name is being talked of everywhere--you must be very careful. No one must know we are lovers." She thrilled at the word "lovers," and her hand trembled in his. "No one shall know," she said. "Not even Miss Leigh," he insisted. "If I say 'no one' of course I mean 'no one,'" she answered, gently--"not even Miss Leigh." He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it, relieved by this assurance. He wanted his little "amour" to go on without suspicion or interference, and he felt instinctively that if this girl made any sort of a promise she would fulfil it. "You can keep a secret then?" he said, playfully--"Unlike most women!" She looked up at him, smiling. "Do men keep secrets better?" she asked. "I think not! Will you, for instance, keep mine?" "Yours?" And for a moment he was puzzled, being a man who thought chiefly of himself and his own pleasure for the moment. "What is your secret?" She laughed. "Oh, 'Sieur Amadis'! You pretend not to know! Is it not the same as yours? You must not tell anybody that I--I--" He understood-and pressed hard the little hand he held.