"I should not think of doing so except of my own free will," declared Jerry, carelessly following the flight of a hawk that flapped close by toward the neighboring woods. "It may interest you to know that just now your brother, Mr. Thomas Ardmore, is the governor of North Carolina. He does not exactly know it, for at Raleigh I myself was governor of North Carolina at the time we met and I only made Mr. Ardmore my private secretary; but when it became necessary to take the field I placed him in full charge, and he is now not only governor of the Old North State, but also the commander-in-chief of her troops in the field." With a nice feeling for climax Jerry paused, picked a lump of sugar from the silver bowl on the tea-table, bit the edge of it daintily, and tossed it to the robins that hopped on the lawn beneath. Mrs. Atchison moved forward slightly, but evinced no other sign of surprise. The hour, the scene, the girl were all to her liking. She would even prolong the delight of hearing the further history of her brother's amazing elevation to supreme power in an American commonwealth--it was so foreign to all experience, so heavy with possibilities, so delicious in that it had happened to Tommy of all men in the world! "I trust," she said, smiling a little, "that Tommy will not prove unworthy of the confidence you have reposed in him." "If he does," said Jerry, slapping her hands together to free them of an imaginary sugar crumb, "I shall never, never marry him." "Then may I ask, Miss Dangerfield, if you and he are engaged?" "Not at all, Mrs. Atchison! Not only are we not engaged, but he has never even proposed to me. Besides, I am engaged to Colonel Rutherford Gillingwater, our adjutant-general." "Then if you are engaged to this military person, just wherein lies the significance of your threat never to marry my brother?" "That," said Jerry, "is perfectly easy of explanation. Your brother and I have met only a few times, and I never become engaged to any man whom I have not known for a week at least. Marriage is a serious matter and while the frequent breaking of engagements is painful in the extreme, I think one can not be too careful in assuming the marriage bond." Mrs. Atchison wondered whether the girl was amusing herself at her expense, but Jerry's tone was grave and Jerry's eyes were steady. Jerry was a new species, and she had appeared at a fortunate moment when Mrs. Atchison had almost concluded that the world is a squeezed lemon. "In view of the fact that you are engaged to Dillingwater--" began Mrs. Atchison, anxious for further disclosures touching Jerry's ideas on matrimony. "Colonel Rutherford Gillingwater, please!" corrected Jerry. "--I don't quite grasp this matter of your attitude toward my brother. Unless I misunderstood you, you remarked a moment ago that unless he succeeded in his present undertaking you would never marry him."