He had held his temper hard; it gave a kick now. "With Thrapston, for instance?" he sneered. "Oh, how absurd! I've never so much as thought of Sir Axel in that way!" As she spoke, she glanced at the clock. No, there was plenty of time. She did not desire an encounter between the two this afternoon. She rose and stood by Maxon. "You're being rather exacting and--and tyrannical, my lord," she said. "I don't think I like you so much to-day. You almost bully me--indeed you do!" He bent his eyes on hers, frowning heavily. "I did it for you." "Oh, it's not fair to put that on me! Indeed it isn't. But, please, don't let's quarrel. It's really such a little thing I ask--not much more than a month to think it over--when nothing can happen for more than six! Indeed, I think a year would--well, would look better for both of us." "Oh, make it two years--make it five!" he growled. "Cyril, if you go on like this, I'll make it never--here, now, and for good!" Even he saw that he had gone too far. He contrived to smooth brow and voice, and put in the man's usual plea to excuse his rough impatience. "It's only because I love you." "Yes, but you needn't be like a bear making love," she retorted pettishly. Yet, to a certain extent, she was appeased by the apology; and she by no means wanted to 'make it never' then and there. His rudeness and his apology together gave her a tactical advantage which she was not slow to use. "But if you do love me as you say, you won't refuse what I ask of you," she went on. Then she indulged him with a touch of sentiment. "If I say 'Yes,' I want to say it without any doubt--with my whole heart, Cyril. 'Yes' now wouldn't be what it ought to be between you and me." She maintained her advantage to the end of the interview. She won her respite; nothing more was to be said till after her return from abroad. Meanwhile they would correspond as friends--"As great friends as you like!" she threw in, smiling. As friends, too, they parted on this occasion; for when he offered to embrace her, she held out her hand gracefully, saying, "That'll do for to-day, I think, Cyril." His frown came again, but he submitted.