By Jove, some jolly love affair, I guessed suddenly. My heart just sank like a lump of what's-its-name, but my whole soul went out in sympathy for her. I made up my mind, then and there, to put myself aside. "Devilish glad--I mean delighted to have you tell me anything," I murmured rather weakly; "but--er--I should think your mother--" "The mater--tell her!" Her hand lifted. "She'd guy the life out of me! Besides, she's in Europe." She paced to the window and back. I protested indignantly: "I don't see how any mother--" "Aw, forget it!" she broke in, and I winced again at slang from those sweet lips. "No, sir; I'm going to unload the whole thing on _you_, or nobody." And, by Jove, the next thing I knew she had perched on the broad arm of the Morris chair in which I sat, her arm resting lightly above my shoulders. "Here's what I want to know about," I heard her sigh. "When you're engaged to one person and meet another you like better, how are you going to--well, chuck it with the first, you know--and still do the square thing? There, that's what's hit me, Dicky; and I'm up against it for fair!" Her hand gently patted my shoulder. "I'm telling you, old chap, because I know you'll understand--because I like you better than any man I ever saw--that's right!" I was just afraid to move! Afraid she'd stop; afraid she'd go on. And all the while I was feeling happier than I ever had in all my life--happier than I ever knew people could be, you know. I never thought her bold--dash it, no--knew it was just her adorable, delicious, Arcadian simplicity, by Jove! That explained it, just as it explained to me all her other unconventionality. "So now it's up to you," she said, "and I want to know what's the answer." The answer! And how could I give her any answer? No, by Jove, I knew jolly well I couldn't take advantage of such circumstances--of her artless confession; knew devilish well it wouldn't do, you know. Might reproach me in years to come; and then--and then, there was Billings! So I just contented myself with looking up smilingly, but it was hard--awfully, awfully hard, dash it--and I just felt like a jolly cad--or fool. Couldn't tell which. CHAPTER VII CONFIDENCES This beautiful creature had proposed to me! By Jove, that's what it amounted to practically; and now, as she said, it was up to me. Yet I couldn't say a word! "Well, what must I do about the other one?" she insisted. The question reminded me of the entanglement to which her frank simplicity had confessed. And she expected me, of all others, to tell her what to do! I looked up into the radiant, crimsoned face as she bent forward slightly, her lips parted, her eyes eager--expectant. She was hanging upon my reply. I coughed slightly. "That question is hardly fair, you know," I said meaningly. "You see, it hits me rather personally." "Oh!" she said. I nodded and tried to find her hand as I looked down.