She laughed at him with tender raillery. "Dearly beloved gander, there is no one in the world thinks so but you." "You've turned my head to-night," he said, still gazing at her. "By Heaven, I believe I'm falling in love with you all over again." "Ah, well, it's to some purpose this time," she laughed, "for I'm very badly smitten too." He did not laugh; he could not. "Daisy," he said, "we will have that honeymoon." She pressed towards him with eagerness none the less because she pretended it to be half-feigned. "Will, you darling! When? When?" His arms clasped her. His chest was heaving. "Very soon," he said, speaking softly down into her upraised face. "I've been thinking, dear--thinking very hard, ever since you asked me. I can get long leave in about three months--if I work for it. We'll go Home for the summer, you and I and the kiddie. If you are sure you can bear it, we will take her to Muriel Ratcliffe--and leave her in her charge." He paused. "Go on!" breathed Daisy. "And then?" "Then we will go away together--you and I--you and I--right away into the country, and be--alone." Daisy drew a deep breath. Her eyes were shining. She spoke no word. Only, after a moment, her hands stole upwards and clasped his neck. "Will it do?" said Will. She nodded mutely. He held her closely. "Daisy, forgive me for asking--it won't hurt you to go back to England?" Her eyes met his with absolute candour. "No, dear," she said. "I was thinking," he said, stumbling a little, "sometimes old scenes, you know--they bring back--old heartaches." "My heart will never ache--in that way," she answered gently, "while I have you." She paused a moment; then: "I'd like you to understand, Will," she said. "It isn't that I have forgotten. I have simply passed on. One does, you know. And I think that is--sometimes--how the last come to be first. It doesn't hurt me any longer to remember my old love. And it mustn't hurt you either. For it isn't a thing that could ever again come between us. Nothing ever could, Will. We are too closely united for that. And it is your love, your faith, your patience, that have made it so." She ended with her head back, her lips raised to his, and in the kiss that passed between them there was something sacred, something in the nature of a bond. Yet in a moment she was smiling again, the while she slipped from his close embrace. "And now you are going to dress for the ball. Come, you won't refuse me just for to-night--just for to-night!" She pleaded with him like a girl and she proved irresistible. Half dazzled by her, he surrendered to her wiles. "I will come if you like, Daisy; but I'm afraid I shall only be in the way. My dancing has grown very rusty from long disuse." "What nonsense!" she protested. "Why, I only married you for the sake of your dancing. If you don't come, I shall spend the whole evening dancing with Nick." "Oh, I'm not afraid of Nick!" said Will. "He is as safe as the Bank of England."