“That’s very fine in Lorraine, but she isn’t my Thurley. You just couldn’t pin yourself down to routine, could you?” He looked at her admiringly. “The best you can do is to pin the other chap down to it—like you did me. It is you who made me study and make good; I was a spoiled kid with more money than was good for me and no one with a grain of faith as to my future. They were holding their breath until I’d get into a scrape and they could go at me without gloves. Well, I didn’t, unless they call loving Thurley Precore and being engaged to her a scrape! Of course they’ve patted me on the shoulder now and said decent things, but I’m twenty-two and a man, and they can’t do otherwise. I guess you said about all there was to say when you told me, ‘The best vault in which to keep your fortune is a good education.’” Thurley leaned over to kiss him on the forehead. “You’re a wonder,” she whispered, “but, really, wouldn’t Lorraine make you happier?” His face clouded with an injured expression. “Why drag in Lorraine? She’d like to drag herself in,” he admitted candidly, “and I guess every one knows it, but you don’t fall in love to suit the other fellow—and I don’t love Lorraine.” “She’s so pretty and frail, and you’re such a big, strong gypsy lad,” mused Thurley, pulling sprays of feathery grass idly, “and I’m such a big, strong gypsy lass that we’re not contrasts. We’re too much alike, Dan; too selfish in the same way. Every one is bound to be selfish in some way or other, but when you both hit the same trail, it usually ends in a crash ... please, wait until I finish. Then we’re too fond of having our own ways. I’d like it if you became Daniel Precore instead of my becoming Thurley Birge; yes, I truly would. I don’t want to promise to love, honor and obey any one—not a bit of it. I want to do what I dreamed of as a child—those dreams kept me alive, Dan. I want to sing, not in the town, but in New York, London, Paris. I’ve read of girls from the country who made good, and I can sing, Dan! It is not silly for me to say it. Besides, there is little else I can do!” “I know it,” he said in a muffled tone, “but why not sing just for me? I’ll always listen.”