"Excuse me--you began by saying that you'd liked Brinsley--liked him awfully, you said. It must have been awful--anything connected with Brinsley is necessarily awful." "There you go again. Don't bolt so--it makes bad running. I told you why I'd liked him so much at first, and you admitted that it was natural. Do you remember that? Well--that isn't all. After I liked him, I began to care for him. I told you that, too. Horrid of me, wasn't it?" "Horrid!" "I wish you wouldn't agree with me all the time!" exclaimed Fanny, impatiently. "You know I really did care--a little. And then one day in the catboat, he asked me--" She stopped and looked at Lawrence. "To marry you? Why don't you say it? It wouldn't surprise me a bit." "No," said Fanny, slowly, "he didn't ask me to marry him." "In Heaven's name, what did he ask you?" enquired Lawrence, exasperated to impatience. "Oh--I don't know. It was something about the channel between Bar and Sheep, I believe. Nothing very important, anyway. I'm not sure that I could remember, if I tried." "Then--excuse me, but what's the point?" "Oh--I know!" exclaimed Fanny, as though suddenly recollecting something. "Not that it matters much, but I like to be accurate. It was about the bell buoy off Sheep Porcupine. You know, I showed it to you the other day. Well--I told him how it had been carried away in a storm some time ago, and that this was a new one. And the next day I heard him telling Augusta all about it, as though he had known before, you see." "Well--that wasn't exactly a crime," observed Lawrence, who could not understand at all. "You'd told him--" "Yes, but he said he remembered the old one. That was impossible, as he hadn't known anything about it. It was a little slip, but it made me open my eyes and watch him. I used to think he was perfection until then." "Oh, I see! That was when you first began to find out that he wasn't quite straight." "Exactly. It made all the difference. I've caught him out more than once since then. The other night, it was too much for me, when he talked about the navy--so I promptly smashed him. He knows that I know, now." "I should think so. All the same--I don't mean to be rude this time, Miss Trehearne-- "Be careful!" "No--I'll risk it. Just now when you said he had 'asked you'--you stopped short. You knew I should believe that you had been going to say that he had asked you to marry him, didn't you?" "Oh, I know! I couldn't help it--I believe I really am a flirt, after all." "I shouldn't like to believe it," said Lawrence, gravely. "Nor I--either. I only wanted to see how you'd look if you thought he'd offered himself just then." "Just then! Do you mean to say that he has offered himself at any other time?"