“Thanks!” Once more Bylant could hardly articulate, but the humor of the situation overcame him and he burst into a roar of laughter. Gita smiled in delighted response. She had hated to embarrass him, and any man must feel a bit of a fool who had forced a girl to propose to him. “Of course,” he said at length, mopping his brow with one of the fine cambric handkerchiefs Gita had so often admired. “I should have asked you to marry me in time. I was only waiting on a propitious moment.” “But you’re so slow and cautious you’d have kept putting it off—you’re really a little afraid of me, you know.” “Oh, I am! I am!” “And I want to be with you next winter, not Mrs. Pleyden. I suppose Polly has told you that gorgeous plan of hers, but it wouldn’t work, not if I know Mrs. Pleyden. She lets Polly have her own way—BUT. Well, she’d freeze the aliens out somehow, if only because she’d be afraid Polly—who’s much too good for the crowd she runs with—would take it into her head to marry one of them. The sense of class may skip a generation but it’s a little brass idol perched right in the middle of Mrs. Pleyden’s inner shrine. . . . I suppose there are hundreds of decent young chaps about, well-born and well-bred at that, but if there are they have no use for the hip-pocket crowd and run with girls of another sort. Too bad. Polly——” “I’m not interested in Polly. I know no one better able to take care of herself. Are you giving me to understand that you want to marry me at once?” “About the first of January. Things are all right now, and I’m safe from Mrs. Pleyden until she moves to New York. You won’t mind living at the manor in summer, I hope? And coming here off and on in winter? I really love the manor.” “Oh, not at all! It is difficult to imagine you anywhere else. But I’ll have to see about an apartment in New York at once. My rooms——” Gita sprang to her feet and danced on the turf. “And we’ll furnish it together! I always wanted to buy lovely things for a house. When mother and I were at our worst—living in one room in a pension—we used to amuse ourselves furnishing imaginary apartments. It was a regular game and helped a lot.” “I think on the whole we’d better have a house.” “Why? An apartment is much less trouble.” “Well—you see—we’d each be more independent. I could have the top floor to myself—my typewriter makes a horrible racket——” “I’d love to have a whole floor to myself, and I’d never go near yours. Elsie has me well trained. I’d never dare cross the threshold of her study.” “You will make a model wife!” “I hate that word. We’ll just be partners.” “Right.” He rose also. “Let’s shake hands on it.” She shook his hand heartily. Then she raised herself on tiptoe and pecked his cheek. “Now, you know I love you!” she exclaimed. “Haven’t the least doubt of it,” he mumbled. “May I announce the engagement at once?”