She could say no more. If she had uttered another syllable just then she would have broken down completely. Joey did not seem to need any further fondling; hence, having a hand at liberty, so to speak, Courtenay placed it under her chin, and lifted her unresisting lips to his. He kissed her twice, and laughed softly, with a glad confidence that sent a wave of delight coursing through Elsie’s veins. “Sweetheart,” he whispered, “I am sure you would not have allowed me to speak so plainly if you were going to send me away. Now, I don’t want you to bind yourself irrevocably to-night. That would certainly not be fair. I don’t know why I am to be angry, or what it was you couldn’t help, and I don’t care a red cent. All I want to know is this—if the _Kansas_ brings us both back to the outer world once more, have I as good a chance of winning your love as any other man?” “But I must tell you. I could not look you in the face again if you did not hear it. When I was left alone in your cabin, the second time, and the sea came in, a packet of letters fell out of some clothes which I picked up from the floor. There was one from your sister. I hardly knew what I was doing, but I saw her name, ‘Madge,’ and I read a few words on the half page above her signature.” His left arm was now so well established that his hand touched her cheek, and he found it wet with tears. “What wild conceit has crept into your pretty little head?” he cried in amaze, unconsciously raising his voice somewhat. “A letter from my sister! She is the most straightforward woman breathing, I assure you. Never a line has she written to me which could bear any construction such as seems to trouble you. Why, on the contrary, Madge has often chaffed me for being so like herself in giving no thought to matrimony.” “It is horrid of me to persist, but I owe it to you to tell you what I saw. She alluded to your ‘affianced wife,’ and said that ‘under no other circumstances,’ whatever they were, would she receive her.” Then Courtenay laughed again, and Elsie found it was absolutely essential, if Joey were not to be crushed, that her head should bend a little forward, with the obvious result that it rested on Courtenay’s shoulder.