"Oh, wait a minute, please, Miss Vintry! I say, you know, I was only joking. Of course I know it's not your fault. I'm awfully sorry if I sounded rude. I thought you wouldn't mind a bit of chaff." She stood looking at him with a hostile air. "Why does it amuse you?" she asked. The square question puzzled Harry, but he was apt at an encounter. He found a good answer. "I suppose because what you do--what you have to do--seems somehow so incongruous, coming from you. I won't do it again, if you don't like it. Please forgive me--and walk with me to the gate to prove it. There's no rule against that!" For half a minute she stood, still looking at him. The moonlight was amply bright enough to let them see one another's faces. "Very well," she said. "Come along." Harry followed her with a pleasant feeling of curiosity. It was some little while before she spoke again. They had already reached the drive. "Why do you say that it's incongruous, coming from me?" she asked. "I'm afraid I can't answer that without being impertinent again," laughed Harry. She turned to him with a slight smile. "Risk that!" It was many days since he had been alone with her--so devoted had he been to Vivien. Now again he felt her power; again he did not know whether she put it forth consciously. "Well, then, you playing sheep-dog when you ought to be--" He broke off, leaving his eyes to finish for him. "So your teasing is to be considered as a compliment?" "I'll go on with it, if you'll take it like that." "Does Vivien take it like that, do you think?" "I don't believe she thinks anything about it--one way or the other. She's partial to my small efforts to be amusing, that's all." "Well, if it's a compliment, I don't want any more of it. I think you'd better, under the circumstances, keep all your compliments for Vivien--till you're married, at all events!" Harry lifted his brows. "Rules! Oh, those rules!" he said with mock ruefulness. "Is there any good in breaking them--for nothing?" He turned quickly towards her. She was smiling at him. "For nothing?" "Yes. Here we are at the gate. Good-night, Mr. Harry." "What do you mean by--?" "I really can't stay any longer." She was doing the mockery now; his eagerness had given her the advantage. "You can think over my meaning--if you like. Good-night!" Harry said good-night. When he had gone fifty yards he looked back. She was still there, holding the gate half open with her hand, looking along the road. After him? As he went on, his thoughts were not all of Vivien. Isobel Vintry was a puzzling girl! The next evening he brought Vivien into the drawing-room punctually at ten. "We're good children to-night!" he said gaily. "We've even said good-night to one another already, and Vivien's ready to run up to bed." "There, Isobel, aren't we good?" cried Vivien, with her good-night kiss to Isobel. "Any reward?" asked Harry, as the door closed behind his _fiancée_. "What do you ask?"