"Oh, oh, you didn't--you didn't--but you _did_!" she choked, swaying her body back and forth. The next moment she was on her feet, facing him, a new something in her eyes. The laughter was quite gone. "You needn't worry, Mr. Donald Estey." She spoke hurriedly, and with all the wild _abandon_ of her old self. "I wasn't asking you to marry me--so you don't have to refuse." Her voice quivered with hurt pride. "Why, of course not, of course not, my dear lady!" He caught at the straw. "I never thought--" "Yes, you did; and you was floundering around trying to find a way to say no. I wasn't good enough for you. And that's just what I was trying to find out, too,--but it hurt, just the same, when I did find out!" "Oh, but, Mrs. Darling, I didn't mean--" "Yes, you did. I saw it in your eyes, and in the way you drew back. Only I--I didn't mean _you_. I never thought of your taking it that way--that I wanted to marry _you_. It was some one else that I meant." "Some one _else_?" The stupefaction in the man's face deepened. "Yes. You don't know him. But they said you was--_were_, I mean, like him; that what _you_ liked, he would like. See? And that's why I tried to find out what--what you did like, so I could learn to be what would please him." The petted idol of unnumbered drawing-rooms blinked his eyes. "You mean you were using _me_ as an--er--understudy?" he demanded. "Yes--no--I don't know. I was just trying to walk and talk and breathe and move the way you wanted me to, so I could do it by and by for--him." Mr. Donald Estey drew in his breath. "Well, by--Jove!" "And I'm going to." She lifted her chin determinedly. "_I'm going to!_ And now you know--why I asked you what I did. I was hoping I--I had gained a little in all these weeks. I've been trying so hard. And before you came, when Mrs. Thayer told me you were like--like the man I love, I determined then to watch you and study you, and do everything the way you liked, if I could find out what it was. And now to have you think I was _asking_ you to--to-- As if I'd ever marry--_you_!" she choked. The next moment, with a wild fling of her arms, she was gone. Alone, Mr. Donald Estey drew a long breath. As he turned, he faced his own image in the mirror across the room. Slowly he advanced toward it. There was a quizzical smile in his eyes. "Donald, me boy," he apostrophized, "you have been rejected. Do you hear? _Rejected!_ Jove! But what an extraordinary young woman!" His eyes left the mirror and sought the door by which she had gone. Mr. Donald Estey did not see Mrs. Darling again during his stay. A sudden indisposition prevented her from being among the guests for some days. CHAPTER XV A WOMAN'S WILL