"Am I by any chance to consider that as an offer of marriage?" she demanded. "That is just what I mean. What do you say?" "Well, of all things!" She rose to her feet and walked up and down the piazza with Cosden following close behind. It was a moment or two before she recovered herself, and then she turned on him. "I take back all the sympathy I ever gave you," she cried indignantly, "and I hate myself for having tried to help you with my advice." Cosden regarded her outbreak with consternation. "I always supposed an offer of marriage was the greatest compliment a man could pay a woman," he exclaimed surprised. "It is no compliment when such an offer is based so cold-bloodedly upon business advantage. You come down here to get a wife, which you have decided in your counting-room will increase your assets. The first girl you select doesn't fit into your plans, as you had expected, so you look me over critically, tell me it doesn't take you long to make up your mind, and offer me a partnership.--All that remains, I suppose, is for us to discuss office hours and the division of the profits! My word! You are the most mercenary human creature I ever met!" Edith was splendid in her anger, but Cosden refused to take her seriously. "Come," he insisted; "you are far too sensible to look at it that way. Why, every one in the hotel is asking if we are engaged. What shall I tell them?" "Tell them you proposed to me and that I refused you," she retorted defiantly, turning from him and disappearing through the open door. * * * * * XIX * * * * * "Well Marian, my play-time is over for the present," Thatcher remarked as he folded a cable he had just received and placed it in his pocket. "They need me at the office, so I'll sail on Monday. There's no reason for you to leave until later unless you wish to." She looked up at him with an expression of such real disappointment that he felt the unspoken reproach. "We have stayed a month longer than we intended, as it is," he explained, "and my going need not hasten your plans at all." "I don't want you to return alone, Harry, and I loathe the thought of turning my back on this enchanting spot. Truly, each day makes it more difficult to leave it." "Then if you don't go at once the problem may become serious," he laughed. "You are so different down here, Harry, I hate to give you up to business again. That is a wife's real rival; I'm jealous of it." "A rival which has made our pleasures possible, so you should be friends. Only a few years more of it, little woman, and then you may plan my days as well as yours. Then we'll have one long play-time together." "You've been saying that for five years," she protested petulantly; "but we seem to come no nearer. Haven't we enough to do that now?"