"We've brought you a license blank," said Lee; "you simply fill it out with your names and ages and things--like this--" And she placed a second paper in her brother's hands. And conspicuous on the paper he saw Lee's name and Renier's. His hands shook a little, and his face became very grave and tender. "Say you're surprised!" exclaimed Lee; "say you were never so surprised in all your born days!" "But I'm not surprised," said Arthur. "Come here to me!" He opened his arms to her and she flung herself into them. Over her shoulder and hiding head Arthur spoke to Renier. "No man," he said, "knows his own heart, and no woman knows hers. Nobody can promise with honesty to love forever. For sometimes love dies just as simply and inexplicably as it is born. But a man can promise to be good to his wife always, and tender with her and faithful to her, and if he is a gentleman he will make those promises good." "I make those promises," said Renier simply; "will you give her to me?" "It is for no man to give or to withhold," said Arthur. "The gods give. The duty of brothers is just to try to help things along and to love their sisters and to be friends with their brothers-in-law." XXXIII "And now," said Lee, "I think I'll tell mamma." On the way to find the princess, Lee and Renier encountered Herring. He appeared to be hurrying, but something in their faces brought him to a sudden stop. Their attempts to meet his inquiring gaze with indifference proved unavailing, for he closed one eye and said: "Which of you two has swallowed the family canary? Or has each of you swallowed half of him?" The guilty pair were unable to preserve their natural coloring. They turned crimson, and each showed a courteous willingness to let the other be the first to speak. "You've been to Carrytown," said Herring. "I saw you start. You raced down to the float. And in your rivalry to see which should board the _Streak_ first, it looked as if you were going to knock each other overboard. Renier, he won, and you, Miss Lee, were annoyed. When you returned from Carrytown, you had long, pensive, anxious faces. Renier stepped ashore and, in helping you ashore, gave you both hands. When a girl whom I have seen climb a tree after a baby owl accepts the aid of a man's two hands in stepping from a solid boat to a solid float, there is food for thought. Having landed, you proceeded direct to the head of the Darling family and were for some time engaged with him in solemn discourse. A paper was shown him. From a distance it looked as if it might be some sort of a license--a license to hunt and be hunted, perhaps----" "But it wasn't," said Lee suddenly, and she thrust her hand under Renier's arm. "If you must know, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, it was a license to love and be loved. So there!" She was no longer blinking, nor was Renier. They looked so loving and proud that it was Herring's turn to feel embarrassment. Then he said: