"No," interrupted young Dampier curtly. The curtness was only partly for this other chap. That sealed box, for reasons of his own and Colonel Conyers', was not to be hauled about by any mechanic in the place. "You and I'll fetch that in presently for Mrs. Crewe." "Right. She'll be back at three o'clock," Ryan told him. "She told me to ask you to have a look round the place or do anything you cared to until she came in." "Oh, thanks," said young Dampier. At that moment what he would have "cared to do" would have been to get this girl to himself somewhere where he could say to the Little Humbug, "Look here. You aren't interested in machinery. You said so yourself. What are you getting this carroty-headed Ass to talk to you about it for?" Seeing that this was out of the question he hesitated.... He didn't want to go round the shops with this fellow, to whom he'd taken a dislike. On sight. He did that sometimes. On the other hand, he couldn't do what he wanted to do--sit and talk to the Little Thing until the Aeroplane Lady returned. What about saying he'd got to look up some one in the village, and bolting, until three o'clock? No. No fear! Why should this other fellow imagine he could have the whole field to himself for talking to Her? So the trio, the age-old group that is composed of two young men and a girl, stood there for a moment rather awkwardly. Finally the Little Thing said, "Well, I've got to go back to my wings," and turned. Then the fellow Ryan said, "One minute, Miss Gwenna----" Miss Gwenna! All but her Christian name! And he, Paul Dampier, who'd known her a good deal longer--he'd never called her anything at all, but "_you_"! Miss _Gwenna_, if you please! What followed was even more of a bit of dashed cheek. For the fellow turned quickly aside to her and said, "I say, it's Friday afternoon. Supposing I don't see you again to-morrow morning--it's all right, isn't it, about your coming up to town for that matinee with me?" "Oh, yes, thanks," said the Little Thing brightly. "I asked Mrs. Crewe, and it's all right." Then the new note crept into her voice; the half-unconsciously-acquired note of coquetry. She said, smiling again at the red-haired Ryan, "I am so looking forward to that." And, turning again to the Airman, she said with a half-shy, half-airy little smile that, also, he found new in her, "Have you seen _The Cinema Star_? Mr. Ryan is going to take me to-morrow afternoon." "Oh, is he?" said Paul Dampier shortly. _Was_ he, indeed? _Neck!_ "You do come up to town sometimes from here, then?" added Mr. Dampier to Miss Gwenna Williams, speaking a trifle more distinctly than usual, as he concluded, "I was just going to ask you whether you could manage to come out with _me_ to-morrow evening?" Nobody was more surprised to hear these last words than he himself.